Sponsored by SPBS Inc.
Q&A with SPBS Inc.
Founded in 1979, SPBS Inc. has been in business for 40 years. Texas has been its home-base of operations, but it has grown through the decades and has expanded operations into Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri, Colorado, New Jersey and New York.
TechNation interviewed SPBS Inc. CEO Jeff Daugherty and Vice President of Sales and Marketing James Blandi to find out more about the company.
Q: Can you tell us a little more about the recent growth of SPBS?
A: Most recently, we have acquired an imaging company in New York, further expanding our footprint in the tri-state area. As a 100% employee-owned company (the only one in the HTM vertical) we pride ourselves on engaged staff which directly relates to a superior customer experience.
Q: What are some advantages that your company has over the competition?
A: That we’re an ESOP. Every time a client sees us, they’re dealing with an owner. Happier team members equals happier clients! As a result of this paradigm, we are driven by client and employee satisfaction and retention.
Many of our technicians and engineers are former military. Additionally, all of our technicians maintain some combination of OEM certification, AAMI certifications, degrees and OTJ training.
Our state-of-the-art CMMS platform provides us and our clients greater visibility into their asset management performance. Our clients have direct visibility and quick access into historical data, reporting and verification which better prepares them for regulatory inspections and audits. This provides SPBS a platform to provide life cycle asset management and alternative equipment management programs.
In addition to the numerous training options and support provided to our employee-owners through company sponsored OEM training, tuition reimbursement and cross-training, SPBS also looks to develop talent from within. We have established career ladders and training programs that support our staff at every level to move up within the company.
Q: What are some challenges SPBS recently overcame?
A: As with other companies in the industry, we are not immune to the labor market shortage and the impact of the anticipated retirement exodus from the HTM industry. As such, we have experienced turnover and difficulties staffing in certain markets. Fortunately, we have the ESOP on our side as a compelling attraction and retention tool. As an employee-owned company, we offer a benefit that serves the employees over the long-run. SPBS commits to investing in our employee-owners and educating current and potential employees about this amazing opportunity.
Additionally, we have reviewed and refreshed our hiring process; thus, ensuring candidates entering into employment with the company maintain basic skills sets as well as cultural fit. We’ve discovered this significantly reduces turnover and provides a more cohesive team.
Q: What product or service that your company offers are you most excited about right now?
A: SPBS is a true asset manager. We customize and design flexible asset program solutions. Additionally, with our recent acquisition, SPBS has increased its imaging equipment coverage for our prospective and current clients. We are excited to roll-out this additional service stream in a larger capacity.
Q: What is on the horizon for your company?
A: Growth! SPBS has worked dutifully to expand its service streams to ensure full facility coverage for our clients. During the last year, we have expanded into two additional states and we, the employee-owners, look forward to our ever-growing footprint across the U.S.
Q: Can you share a company success story?
A: A client serviced out of our Irving field service office recently underwent an inspection and audit with the DNV with less than a 24-hours’ notice. Our branch manager’s presence was requested at the meeting, as well as several department heads and the administrative office. We started with a walk through of reports which started with the hospital as a whole and moved all the way through to the individual devices and finished up with a walk through of our inspection policies and procedures. DNV asked about our equipment certifications and asked us to prove that each device tested had a valid piece of test equipment on them. Review of our reports and procedures had a clear chain of what and how we did it on each and every piece of equipment allowing us to move quickly through all the questions the inspector could throw at us.
When it came to running equipment tracers, our manager simply typed in the control number into the search bar and ran through all our inventory, schedule and PM checklists in less than a minute each. In all, we spent 15 minutes on this before the inspecting agent ran out of his standard questions. He then moved from his paper to a more theoretical stance asking us how we planned to improve this year. We spent the next 45 minutes discussing random topics and had clearly “passed.”
After our segment was completed, the QA officer gave the comment, “So that is how that is supposed to go.” We curiously asked her to explain and she mentioned that the sister hospital in Houston had spent three hours discussing biomedical policies and procedures and had multiple follow-up findings when their other provider had fallen far short.
This is just one of many stories in which SPBS has consistently been able to provide accurate and reliable service and reporting for our clients; which has only paved a smooth road for our clients when facing audits and inspections from regulatory bodies.
Q: What is your company’s mission?
A: As an employee-owned organization, it is our mission to deliver more than basic repair and maintenance of clinical equipment. We deliver responsive support, high-quality and cost-effective service and solutions tailored to our client’s needs.
For more information, visit SPBS.com.