Lowering the cost of high-quality healthcare

If there’s any company that’s synonymous with quality ultrasound solutions, it’s Charlotte, N.C.-based Global Medical Imaging, LLC (GMI). The crème de la crème of ultrasound providers, GMI was established in 2002 to provide customers with a “brand indifferent” solution. Instead of simply focusing on one brand, GMI strived to be an advocate for the ultrasound consumer. Suffice it to say that this strategy worked. In fact, in only eight short years, GMI has achieved such substantial growth that it has taken the imaging sector by storm.

But don’t just take our word for it. In addition to garnering acclaim in the healthcare industry, GMI has also caught the eye of two leading national business publications. As a testament to the company’s success, Entrepreneur Magazine recently recognized GMI as No.148 on its Hot 500 list of the fastest-growing businesses in America and Inc. Magazine ranked it in its top 5,000 list of growing companies. Plus, GMI has been recognized as a finalist for two consecutive years by Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. So what makes GMI so noteworthy? Medical Dealer wanted to find out.

In this exclusive interview, GMI CEO Ryan Dienst explains how his company has achieved substantial growth, why GMI’s mission influences every business decision, and what healthcare professionals can expect from GMI moving forward. Don’t miss out.

A True Success Story

Medical Dealer: Please share a little bit about the history of GMI.

Ryan Dienst: Scott Ray established GMI in 2002 as a full-service reconditioned ultrasound company. Very quickly, we began developing our service, parts, and repair capabilities to better support our customers. Over time, we have continued to become more vertically integrated and now have all of our technical capabilities in-house. In fact, we have complete control of our products from probe repair to system reconditioning to service and everything in between. This allows us to be a very fast, cost-effective solution for our customers.

Although we began as a private-practice-focused company, we expanded to support hospital-based biomedical and clinical engineering programs as we developed our technical capabilities. By partnering closely with hospital-based engineers, we empower them to be successful in lowering the cost to maintain their ultrasound equipment while improving uptime and service delivery. These programs have been very successful and have contributed to GMI’s growth.

Our most recent change is the acquisition of Trident Imaging Services of Houston. A large part of our growth in 2009 that will continue in 2010 is the expansion of our field-service organization. Texas was a key market for us where we have a very large installed base and more opportunity to grow. Will Martinez and his team at Trident brought on a talented team of engineers and increased capabilities to deliver excellent field service in the Texas/Louisiana market.

Trident has also brought on nuclear medicine capabilities, which is a very synergistic new modality to GMI. We will be rolling out reconditioned camera sales, service contracts, time and materials support, parts, and de-installation/moving/re-installation services throughout the rest of 2010 in many key markets nationwide. Thanks to our relationships and technical expertise, we are able to bring this new modality to our customer base.

Without a doubt, GMI’s history is a story of tremendous growth. However, what’s most exciting is that we’re just now maturing as an organization to fully maximize our capabilities. And it’s our team of incredibly talented people that has pushed GMI to this level. With the backing of a great private equity group partner, WJ Partners; key spots filled on our management team; a strategic acquisition behind us; and a new modality coming on board, our future has never looked brighter.

MD: No company is without adversity, especially in this economy. What challenges has GMI faced this year?

Dienst: Right now, the biggest challenge for GMI is bringing on talented people and making up for a soft capital equipment market. There’s no question that the overall equipment market is down, and we’re continuing to look for ways to pick up this segment of our business while devoting resources to the other parts of our business that are growing quite rapidly.

On the talent side, we have made a couple of key additions in the last six months. We’ve hired a new controller, Susan Dunn, and have added Jim Whalen as the director of field service. Susan is greatly improving our financial management and analytical capabilities to help us continue to improve as an organization. And Jim brings a wealth of multimodality service experience and is helping us significantly grow, as well as improve, our field engineering team.

We will also continue to look for talented companies or teams that could benefit from being part of GMI. After all, our depth of resources and technical capabilities are necessary to survive in the competitive world of ultrasound and nuclear medicine. Acquisitions like Trident bring in talented teams that we can add resources and capabilities to, thus accelerating our growth. Moving forward, we will continue to look for the right acquisitions and strive to bring great teams like Trident on board with GMI.

MD: Why do you believe GMI has achieved such notable success?

Dienst: We are fanatical about supporting our customers. Everything we do is built to support this primary mission and to help Lower the Cost of High Quality Healthcare™. Our investments in people, research and development, inventory, repair capabilities, and infrastructure are all aligned on the common goal of improving our service to our customers, lowering their costs, and ensuring that they have a great experience with GMI.

Besides being vertically integrated, what makes us unique is our ability to create innovative programs and services that really meet the needs of our customers. A great example of this is how we created our Ultrasound Management Program for hospital-based engineers supporting ultrasound. This innovative program is saving some of our hospital systems more than 70 percent on ultrasound expenditures and is now being copied by our competition. We devised this program because it was best for our customers, even if it reduced our revenues and profits in the short run. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and we are pleased to see others copying our model and delivering considerable value back to hospital-based programs across the nation.

MD: How will GMI evolve in the coming years?

Dienst: We will continue to get closer to our customers. In fact, we are growing our outside engineering and sales teams in most major markets across the United States. We will continue to look for acquisitions like Trident that make sense geographically, technically, and culturally. These may include new modalities for GMI as well.

The unifying strategy in all of our plans is providing fanatical support for our customers and helping them Lower the Cost of High Quality Healthcare™. Whether that’s in acquiring or servicing ultrasound or nuclear medicine assets, this mission keeps us focused on what provides the most value to our customers.

Over the next five to 10 years, I anticipate geographic expansion and product additions in ways that help us strengthen our brand promise to our customers. We understand the fundamental value that we bring to customers, and everything we do going forward should align with delivering that value. Our vision is a vertically integrated, technically excellent organization that is passionate about supporting our customers and Lowering the Cost of High Quality Healthcare™. If we stay true to that vision, we will continue to succeed.