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Bemes Inc. was founded in 1977. Its two divisions, Bemes Medical and Bemes Home Care, focus exclusively on the respiratory equipment markets in the U.S. and overseas. They sell pre-owned ventilators, oximeters, defibrillators, and pulmonary function testing (PFT) machines, among other items such as air compressors, CPAP/BiPAP, humidifiers, resuscitators, metabolic carts, oxygen monitors, tanks, etc.

Many companies sell multiple types of medical equipment but survival and success for Bemes has resulted from their specialization, including industry-leading tech support and OEM-comparable parts warranties. "It's a lot better for our customers. They know they're going to get the same service over and over again, that the equipment is always going to be checked, tested and working," said Don Grimm, Internet sales manager. "There is no 'as is.' All equipment is actually working, functioning and ready for a patient."

The company has about 45 employees on the medical equipment side including eight in-house technicians plus four on the road. Customers include mostly hospital dealers, especially in South America, India, and Asia.

All the equipment comes from U.S. hospitals and, in fact, the respiratory market is experiencing somewhat of an equipment shortage, Grimm noted, due to fears of a bird flu outbreak or other epidemic here in the U.S. "We have hospitals in the U.S. that are holding their equipment instead of selling it off... particularly smaller hospitals are holding their equipment for a backup scenario in case something did happen [in the] U.S.A."

In this challenging supply scenario, Bemes' expertise with the equipment and markets is especially important to the business. "In respiratory, there's more competition every day. So we're striving to get better, not stay the same. We're learning more, learning new places to find equipment, ways to keep equipment running longer," he said. "There are a lot of people struggling in the last couple of months because there is not a lot of equipment available. But we have stayed pretty busy. We find equipment no matter what. Even if you have to buy it [at a higher price] than normal, that's what you need to do."

The company relies on DOTmed for an online business interface. "Out of all the website companies, DOTmed has been my first choice as far as Internet sales both for U.S.A. and international," Grimm said.