Quality Biomedical recently named Will Ross President & Chief Operating Officer. PK Bala, Quality Biomedical’s CEO, said, “Will’s leadership brings focus and clarity to our growth goals as we continue to provide the best service and technology to our customers.” In this blog we talk with Will about this new role and his vision for Quality Biomedical and the future of medical device service.
QB: First a little background. Will, you’ve served as the COO since 2021 and before that you led marketing. So, you’ve been responsible for guiding the company’s operations and overseeing the creation of new, innovative service solutions for a while. PK tells me that your ideas played a pivotal role in Inc Magazine naming Quality Biomedical the 155th fastest-growing health services company in the country on their Inc5000 list. That’s impressive!
And now you’re President and COO of Quality Biomedical. Congratulations!
Will Ross: Thank you very much. It’s a privilege to work alongside a team of talented individuals who are always looking for new ways to help our customers win.
QB: What are your plans for where you will take the company over the next few years?
Will Ross: It’s quite simple, really. I want Quality Biomedical to be the very best in servicing respiratory technology. When companies think of maintaining or repairing their respiratory equipment, we should be the first, obvious and top choice.
QB: What is the company doing to get to that top-of-mind position?
Will Ross: It’s all about helping our customers solve their challenges. Right now healthcare companies are being squeezed on three sides. We hear every day about the pressure they’re under 1) to get greater operational efficiencies, 2) to capture higher profits, and 3) to grow faster. With that in mind, we have launched advanced technology architected specifically to help them achieve these goals.
QB: Tell me more about that.
Will Ross: Well, to begin with, as you know, we’ve always had a great reputation for our exceptional service levels. Our technicians are well-trained and top-notch in their skills. We extend the life of our customers’ respiratory equipment and we do so with high integrity, in a transparent, customer-centric way.
To build on that market-leading service, our team has developed technology that will give customers new insight to help them grow and scale profitably. Loosely speaking, we’re now offering tech-enabled service – and this will be a real game changer for our customers.
QB: That sounds intriguing. Can you explain how this “tech-enabled service” will benefit customers?
Will Ross: If you look at other industries – from IT to fast food restaurants – they’re using mobile devices to improve workflow and get more done with less staff. Healthcare should be doing this too, but for some reason it has lagged behind. We aim to change that and improve productivity and profitability when it comes to healthcare companies managing their respiratory equipment.
We’ve figured out how to apply technology to enable better service. Think about how a few years ago, nobody had an app to order food – now it’s common place and it’s critical for fast food restaurants because, to remain profitable, they have to operate with reduced manpower these days.
QB: I have seen that change when eating out. But what does it mean for healthcare?
Will Ross: Well, it’s not all that different for healthcare providers. They have more to do and fewer people to do it with…and they’re expected to scale quickly and profitably. These goals can’t be met without using technology to their advantage.
That’s where Quality Biomedical has “built a better mousetrap” so to speak. Not only do we have the service experts with the know-how, but on top of that we’re providing technology to streamline our customers’ service needs.
QText provides a text notification so they can check and see if they have anything that needs to be picked up or prepare to receive returned items.
QTag is really cool. This is a QR-code label that they put on devices that need service. They just scan it with their phone (much like you do many restaurant menus these days) and then the RMA is scheduled. This is an efficiency game changer for service departments and tracks a clear chain of custody.
Then there’s QConnect. This is where the real magic happens. In this online portal, customers get visibility to how many devices they have out, where each one is in the service process, and when they can expect them returned. It’s like command-central for medical device service tracking.
QB: Wow. That does sound cool. I have an image of the StarTrek communicator talking to the command deck!
Will Ross: That’s the great part about technology – it allows for faster scaling. It’s going to be a big game changer for all of our customers. It’s all about gaining insight in a simple, streamlined way.
QB: I can definitely see how this technology will help large HMEs with lots of customers and locations. It wouldn’t make sense for them to try to build something like this in-house.
But what about OEMs?
Will Ross: When OEMs get their end users to utilize QTags and QConnect, it gives the OEMs a wealth of product data they don’t have today. All they currently get is a red tag that says a product needs service. With our technology, they can see how many times the unit had an alarm and where it’s failing and not failing. They can know early on if there are issues with a product. This will help them with their customer service, product development, and regulatory compliance.
QB: Well, this certainly is a big idea!
Will Ross: It truly is the future for medical device service. We are focused on respiratory devices right now, but we could easily extend it broader. The sky’s the limit because it’s exactly the kind of healthtech that the healthcare infrastructure needs right now.
We take care of the repair, warehousing, and logistics of servicing respiratory equipment and now, using best-in-class technology, we’re going to automate, digitize, and optimize our customers’ mundane and painful tracking tasks so that they can be more efficient and more profitable – and so they can grow faster and serve more of their own customers.
QB: I think that sums up your vision for the future very nicely. Thank you for taking the time and sharing how you see technology as an accelerant. It sounds like a good next step would be for people to call and get a demo to see what “tech-enabled service” could do for them.
