When John Granholm and Dave Hill created A to Z Medical, Inc. in 2005, they merged 20 years of work at their individual companies into one very large facility.

A to Z currently is housed in a 10,000-square-foot facility in Portland, Oregon, but even at that size (ceilings average 30 feet), recent growth in the medical equipment business requires them to double their space. The two are adding another 10,000 square feet soon.

"We've actually filled up this space in six months," Owner Granholm notes.

A to Z sells, services and refurbishes all kinds of medical equipment, but their primary focus is on the power procedure chair, such as the 111-119 Ritter 75E. Clients include dermatologists, family practices, large and small clinics, hospitals, plastic surgeons, and any doctor doing minor office procedures.

A to Z Medical certifies and/or repairs all brands of power procedure chairs/tables, autoclaves, defibrillators, multi-parameter monitors and more.

What sets A to Z apart, Granholm adds, "Is we not only own the equipment outright, but we service all the equipment we sell. Our staff goes through everything. We do our upholstering in house, we use high-grade medical vinyl, we offer custom colorization."

Equally important, A to Z has its own bio-medical engineer on site, among its eight-member staff. He checks everything for ECRI standards, certain protocols, and manager specifications. while not an authorized service center, A to Z does handle Midmark/Ritter and Amsco/Steris equipment.

"Having a Bio-Med on staff makes us a stronger company, one that can stand behind our work," Granholm says.

In current stock are over 10,000 pieces including 200 exam tables and over 50 power chairs.

"We see a growing market in service and repair, both in the US and internationally," Granholm says, citing South America, the Philippines and Mexico among their growing world-wide markets.

"From our standpoint, as not only a refurbisher of medical equipment, but also as a certify/service/repair facility, we are noticing an increase in the service and repair of existing clinics and private offices," Granholm explains. "As purchasing budgets are reduced, facilities (large and small) are seeing the cost advantage of simply repairing existing equipment. At the very least, purchasing less expensive, fully-refurbished used medical equipment has significant cost advantages."

Both in their separate companies and in their joint venture, Hill (President) and Granholm cite themselves as "early adopters" of DOTmed services having used the DOTmed site "for years."

"We are very pleased with DOTmed," Granholm concludes. "We like its user-friendly interface, especially the ability to post pictures, something very important when you have an overseas market. And we're really impressed with how your site is linked to both Google and Yahoo search engines."

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