MARYSVILLE – When hospitals want to upgrade their operating room equipment with the latest and greatest models, Robert Mighell readily takes their castaways.
“They’re just well used. There’s nothing wrong with them,” Mighell said as he meandered among several operating tables in World Medical Equipment’s workshop.
And by the time the company is ready to ship a refurbished operating table out of its north Marysville headquarters, it looks nearly new.
“We take an operating room table completely apart and totally rebuild it,” said Mighell, World Medical’s co-owner and president.
With that reputation for quality refurbishing and greater demand for lower-cost medical equipment, World Medical’s been recognized as one of the state’s fastest-growing private companies for each of the past five years.
It’s not surprising, said Mighell, as hospitals are trying to save money at a time when they’re receiving lower insurance and Medicare reimbursements. At the same time, outpatient surgery centers have been growing in number across the country.
“They don’t always need the latest high-tech equipment, and refurbished works just great for them,” Mighell said. “When you’re saving $10,000 to $20,000 on a table – and that’s realistic – people take notice of it.”
That type of savings amounts to one-third to one-half off the price of new equipment.
In addition to rebuilding operating tables, World Medical sells refurbished operating room lights, autoclaves used for sterilizing medical instruments, anesthesia machines and more. The company also sells a variety of new equipment as well, most of which are items that cannot be easily refurbished.
“We’ll never be the lowest price, but for the quality,” Mighell thinks his firm is hard to beat. He said some of his customers buy first from lower-priced refurbishers and, unhappy with their purchase, end up with him.
Before selling refurbished equipment, World Medical first has to find inventory. It usually buys from hospitals that are upgrading their equipment.
When the used equipment comes in, it’s not often pretty. Battered operating tables with scratches and bent handles are the normal arrivals.
The items arrive in the company’s shop, which is overseen by Steve Hurst, a former factory-trained medical service technician.
He uses that experience to train the company’s workers, as it takes specialized skills to revamp much of the equipment. A modern operating table, for example, uses a tangle of both hydraulics and electronics to control its movements.
“You’re not going to find somebody off the street that’ll have this type of experience,” Hurst said.
As a piece of equipment goes through the refurbishing process, workers document each step with paperwork. A customer buying a refurbished piece usually get a computer disk with details and even photos of the refurbishing process.
World Medical has contracts with some medical equipment manufacturers to allow it to easily get original parts when needed. The shop even has a paint booth that workers use to get equipment not only working like new, but also looking like it.
“It’s a challenge sometimes,” Mighell said. “But we want to get it back like it was before.”
Mighell, who lives in Stanwood, formerly was an engineer at Bothell-based Quinton Cardiology Systems, which makes heart monitors and stress-testing equipment. When that company went through financial troubles in the early 1990s, he went to the University of Washington to earn his master’s of business administration and got interested in small business opportunities.
After reading about World Medical Equipment’s former owner, Mighell talked to him. He ended up getting a job at the company in 1992 and, two years later, he bought the company.
Two years ago, the company moved from Stanwood to its present 18,000-square-foot office and shop space.
In a niche industry such as used medical equipment, World Medical has expanded its customer base through word of mouth, exhibits at trade shows and exposure through the firm’s Web site. The company also has a self-designed database of the nation’s hospitals and medical clinics that it uses to solicit potential customers.
Business continues to get better, as October was the second-best month ever for the company, Mighell said.
“It’s been fun to grow,” he said, adding that World Medical sold equipment in 42 different states last year. “It’s good to see the hard work and time my employees put in pay off.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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