Jonathan Temple—owner of two OxyMed locations in Alabama—sees his professional success as bound to that of his patients and health care partners, and the positive results of this philosophy are undeniable. Since purchasing the original Rainsville location in 2010, and opening a second location in Birmingham that same year, Temple has seen OxyMed’s annual revenues rise from around $400,000 to over $1 million. The staff has likewise doubled from the original six to the current 12 employees.
Temple’s formula can be summed up in one word: relationships. It was the strength of the personal bonds he formed over his 20-plus years in the home medical equipment business that spurred him to buy and expand OxyMed, a full-service HME provider specializing in respiratory and sleep products. “I’ve done business the same way everywhere I’ve been—always be available,” he says. “I actually was in partnership with another company in 2010, and my partners bought me out. When they announced that I was no longer part of the business, referral sources started calling me saying ‘get yourself together and start taking our referrals, because we don’t want to use anybody but you.’ So I moved pretty rapidly to purchase OxyMed, because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. But it all comes down to relationships. I know it sounds like a cliché, but you put people first and they trust you with their referrals.”
Patient satisfaction is the top priority for OxyMed. According to Temple, if the patient doesn’t feel comfortable with their CPAP equipment he won’t use it, or he won’t use it properly. Thus the patient believes the CPAP doesn’t work, which reflects badly on the prescribing physician. “My job is to make everybody look good,” he says with a chuckle.
OxyMed’s comfort strategy begins as soon as a patient walks in the door. The Birmingham location, tucked away in a shopping center off a major highway, looks more like a day spa than a clinic or equipment warehouse. The store’s wrought iron doors, high ceilings, sunny paint scheme and wood details create a stylish, soothing atmosphere. At the time of our interview Temple’s sister-in-law, an interior designer, was in the process of updating the store’s portable oxygen concentrator (POC) display wall, adding pops of color and rearranging the merchandise to make the display more eye-catching. “When you walk in, we don’t want you to feel sick. We want you to feel well,” says Temple.
OxyMed is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that patients feel comfortable with their CPAP therapy. The first part of Temple’s strategy is selection; he hears from sales reps that he has the largest selection of CPAP masks in the state, and one look at shelves lined with masks that run the entire length of one shop wall attests to the truth of these reports. “Sometimes what’s best for the patient isn’t necessarily what’s best for the provider,” says Temple. “But we don’t look at things that way. This is not just about selling CPAP equipment for us; it’s what we do, it’s who we are. If I give you what I want you to have and it doesn’t work, you’re not going to use it.”
The second part of the strategy is letting the patient know they’re not confined to their initial choice of mask. “A new CPAP user has no experience sleeping with a mask, so we’re going to try to put you at ease—we call it customized CPAP therapy,” says Temple. “We have a mask-fit guarantee. If we help you choose a mask and it doesn’t work for you, you can exchange it within 30 days. Truthfully, a lot of times we’ll go beyond that 30 days.”
The third part of the strategy is follow-up. In addition to the 24-hour callback, OxyMed conducts a two-week, one-month, three-month and six-month patient follow-up. “Plus, I give them my cell phone number on my card and my e-mail,” says Temple. “We tell them to call us anytime. We leave the door open to our patients so they know they’re not stuck with what we give them. There’s a lot of tweaking we can do to the machines to make the patient more comfortable. We make sure patients know that up front so they feel comfortable with the process.”
Temple says the benefit for OxyMed of all the attention paid to customized comfort and follow-up is, once again, strengthened relationships. “From a marketing standpoint, when it’s time for a new mask we’re not calling them out of the blue,” he says. “We’ve been calling them all along, so we’re not strangers.” Plus, the regular conversations offer opportunities for additional cash sales. “Sometimes when we call people it triggers a question or a problem they might have,” Temple says. “They might say they’re having a problem with the mask getting dislodged when they roll over in bed at night, so we can suggest a CPAP pillow.”
Temple is as committed to building trust with his referral sources as with his patients. An example of OxyMed’s referral management philosophy is outlined on the marketing pieces that the company’s three sales representatives distribute to doctors’ offices, hospitals and sleep clinics: “We never close! OxyMed is always open. We take referrals anytime—even on weekends and at 4:30 p.m. on Fridays!”
“It’s a funny line, but we’re serious,” Temple says. “Referrals want to know that there’s a company they can call at any time. You don’t know when a patient is going to be discharged from the hospital. The mindset of working from eight to five doesn’t exist in health care. When they have to do their job, we’re here.” In fact, if OxyMed receives a referral on an insurance that they don’t accept, they will step in to find a provider. “I’ve made alliances with case managers at the insurance companies, so I can call on them to find an in-network provider. Then we let the referral source know what we did, so if the referral source has any questions, they know who to call. We help them do their job as much as we can.”
Despite the fact that the majority of OxyMed’s revenue comes from Blue Cross Blue Shield reimbursement, Temple is being proactive about retail. “If you’re not building the retail side, you’re not going to survive,” he says. In building his retail inventory he’s careful to note when patients, physicians and other referral sources mention a need that he could fill. “I met with an allergy doctor recently who said there’s no place locally to find allergy-related products like mattress covers and pillow cases. So we’re looking into carrying a line of allergy-related bedding products.” Temple says he also asks his customers what they’re buying on the Internet that they’d like to buy locally.
Temple learned the importance of building his retail capacity the hard way. “We started seeing a trend where our patients were turning in their oxygen equipment because they had bought a portable unit on the Internet. Why didn’t they get it from us?” He recognized a problem with selection and customer education and set about correcting it. “We’ve got at least five brands of portable concentrators now, so patients can see and feel it before they buy. Moreover, if they have problems with the product, we’re here to help them right away.”
OxyMed’s newest education venture is a 30-second commercial that promotes Somnetics’ Transcend, the smallest, lightest and most-portable CPAP on the market. “We’ve been doing television commercials since we opened,” Temple says. “It’s the best thing we’ve ever done. We get overwhelmingly good results from it.”
Ultimately, the reason for OxyMed’s success remains a basic promise made to patients and referral sources: you can count on us. “I get so many compliments on our staff, that they care and they take time to explain, and that pays off,” Temple says. “You can’t judge everything by money all the time. If you take care of people first, then the money and all the rest will come.”
