Monday, September 15, 2008

Artificial limb maker adds Festus office to its offerings

St. Louis Business Journal - by Angela Mueller

Link to original article here.

Prosthetic & Orthotic Care Inc. is expanding its presence in the St. Louis region by opening a Festus office.

P&O Care currently operates offices in Des Peres and Fairview Heights, Ill. The Festus office, to be located across the street from Jefferson Memorial Hospital at 1479 Highway 61, is scheduled to open in early October.

Founded by Jim Weber and Jon Wilson in 2002, P&O Care designs, fabricates and fits artificial limbs and braces. Since its launch six years ago, the company has grown from Weber, Wilson and an office manager to 22 employees, including nine prosthetic and orthotic practitioners.

“We’ve been growing pretty aggressively,” said Weber, who is chief executive of the company. “The new location is 23 miles south of (Interstate) 270. We have a lot of patients in that area who come from all the way down to Farmington. With this being near a hospital and being right at (Interstate) 55 and (Highway) 61, it seemed like the right spot.”

P&O Care is investing about $50,000 in the new 1,800-square-foot Festus office, mainly to cover equipment and set up costs. Build-out of the space is being provided by the landlord, Tammy Fadler of Signature Properties in Festus, as part of the lease deal.

The new office, to be known as P&O’s Jefferson County Care Center, will include office space as well as a full-service fabrication laboratory for artificial limbs and braces.

“We do most of our fabrication at our Fairview Heights location, but we also have set up our other offices to have full fabrication capabilities,” said Weber, who declined to disclose the firm’s revenue. “I like to have full capability at the point of service.”

P&O’s Des Peres office, known as the St. Louis County Care Center, is located at 1074 Old Des Peres Road. The Fairview Heights St. Clair County Care Center is located at 13 Executive Drive, Suite 13.

In addition to the three office locations, P&O also operates seven mobile units, which prosthetists and orthotists use to drive to patients’ homes or nursing homes to provide care.

Demand for prosthetics and orthotics is on the rise nationwide. In 1990, more than 3.5 million Americans were using some kind of orthotic, up more than 100 percent since 1980, according to a Nielsen report. By 2020, the demand for services is anticipated to rise 25 percent for orthotic care and 47 percent for prosthetic care.


amueller@bizjournals.com

No comments:

Post a Comment