In ancient Greek mythology, Auxo was a deity evoking spring, growth, and prosperity. It's proved an auspicious name for the medical equipment company honored with the DOTmed 100 designation for 2010.

Auxo Medical began as East Coast Distributors in 1995. In 1997, a four-man management team purchased the company and shifted some operations and strategies to guide the firm to its current niche. The company specializes in sterilizers and washer-disinfectors including sales, and increasingly, service.

"About 60 percent of our company specializes in refurbishing sterilization and OR equipment," explains Clay Morris, Jr., sales manager and co-owner. "A lot of companies on DOTmed have a similar focus. We differentiate ourselves by fully reconditioning equipment. We break it down to the bare core and rebuild equipment using all OEM parts and honoring all our equipment with the same warranty as if it came new from the original manufacturer."

That's a serious commitment to excellence that is not always applied.

"The word 'refurbished' is such a broad term in our industry. It could be someone taking a chamois cloth and wiping down a surgical table or sterilizer compared to someone stripping it down and rebuilding it with all new components as we do," Morris said. "We don't claim to be the cheapest game in town but we plan to be cost competitive and provide a quality product."

The formula has been working for customers who want to save 40 to 50 percent off the price of new sterilizers, washer-disinfectors, and complementary equipment such as surgical tables, stretchers, surgery lights and other devices.

The other 40 percent of business is in the form of service. "We don't just offer sales of equipment and walk away. We offer service contracts and beyond warranty period service," he said. "Since we are a service as well as an equipment company, we're able to help out a lot on the planning and consulting for new [surgery] centers; we work with our contractors and are familiar with utility and siting requirements in terms of how to position the equipment, do wall set ups, run their water lines. You get involved at the beginning and follow through to post-warranty service. Many customers have been with us since we opened."

The Richmond, Va.-based company has clients nationwide. "We have service providers strategically located...employee technicians do our installations. We don't subcontract that out like many others do."

Meanwhile, their work reflects a trend toward service. "We've seen the service side of our business grow tremendously. Customers are hanging on to equipment a lot longer and trying to extend the life of capital equipment."

However Morris noted that while sales are hard to predict, they have spiked in the first quarter and early second quarter this year. DOTmed may be part of the reason.

"We have had some great feedback from the site. We have been advertising for two years and have sold a substantial amount of equipment from end user hits. From our initial investment on DOTmed we have done six figures in sales, which is a lot," Morris said.

More Voices