PORTLAND, Ore. — The folks at Care Medical Equipment in Portland, Ore., know a good idea when they see one — and they know how to run with it.
The course they are running these days took them right to Medtrade (held Oct. 12-15 in Atlanta) not just as a provider but as an exhibitor. The company's alter ego, Battery Power Solutions, had a station in the Nova Ortho-Med booth.
How did Care Medical, aka Battery Power Solutions, get there?
The story starts about a year ago when one of Care Medical's respiratory therapists showed the rest of the staff a novel product, a battery pack for a CPAP. The light bulb that went on had the power of a Klieg light.
"Being from the Northwest, we get a lot of people who want to go hunting or fishing," said Pamela Bowman, marketing coordinator for Battery Power Solutions, adding that having to use a CPAP at night made such activities difficult at best.
Bowman said her own grandfather, diagnosed with sleep apnea 20 years ago, tried taking along a generator on his hunting and fishing trips, but it was so cumbersome he finally gave up.
"We saw the need [for a battery pack] and thought it would be great to offer it to our patients," Bowman said.
The tidy black box (think a laptop cut in half) quickly caught on with CPAP users. It was so well received, in fact, that Care Medical decided to form a company that would act as a distributor of the product to other providers, and Battery Power Solutions was born.
"We have a direct relationship with the manufacturer and they only sell to us," explained Bowman. She said Battery Power Solutions has partnered with ERAC International, a wholesale distributor of home medical equipment, to provide Super CPAP Power Packs to resellers. Battery Power Solutions then connects the consumers to the authorized resellers.
So far, there are resellers in New Jersey and California in addition to Oregon, and feedback has been positive, Bowman said, adding that the battery packs are cash sales — a relief for those trying to wean themselves off Medicare — and are in the $500 range.
The power packs come in three sizes ranging from 3.8 pounds to 9 pounds, with the 3.8- and 5-pound models being the most popular. Powered by a lithium ion battery, the power packs last from 15 to 20 hours for the small model, 20 to 30 hours for the medium size and about 50 hours for the largest size.
Bowman said the company is considering dropping the 9-pound model, however. Many CPAP users want to travel with their battery packs, she said, "and that would never be allowed on the plane."
In addition to tourists and outdoor folk, the power packs are proving popular with another population: truckers.
The trucking industry is concerned about sleep apnea among its members, Bowman said. "Truckers wanted to find a way to power [the CPAP] without using the vehicle's battery."
Hearing that, a company team journeyed to Las Vegas recently to market the Super CPAP Power Packs at the trucking industry's annual conference. "I think we will do a lot of business [in that industry]," she said.
Bowman added that her fledgling company has so far been pleased at the response to the Super CPAP Power Pack and expects the demand to increase. The company has spoken with representatives from major CPAP manufacturers, who have been supportive by passing on the product information to their customers.
And a new accessory product is already on the horizon, Bowman said. "The CPAP heated humidifiers eat a lot of juice, so we are developing a jacket for the humidifier," she said. "We're hoping with quality material we can up the run time 20 percent or so."
