Byram gets back to basics

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. ­ - After a busy, high-profile string of acquisitions a few years ago, Byram Healthcare adopted a veritable vow of silence, and with good reason. The $100-million-plus mail-order supplies company needed some quiet time to digest the acquisitions and to get back to the basics of good patient care and customer service, said President/CEO Rick Smith, who joined the company in June 2006. “Sometimes when you are in a business a long time, you get away from the day-to-day focus on blocking and tackling,” he said. “Sometimes it takes an outsider with a fresh perspective to reinvigorate or reinvent the company.” Reinvigoration is good, because with a large and growing population in need of Byram's mail order products (it supplies woundcare, ostomy, urological, incontinence and enteral nutrition), Smith expects some busy days ahead. “The aging population, chronic diseases and the migration to the home—I think there is significant opportunity,” he said. Smith previously served three years as president and CEO of OptionCare. Before that, he worked at Coram Healthcare. Since coming to Byram, Smith said, he and a new management team have drawn on past clinical experience to implement programs that enhance patient compliance and education around their products and the need to self-manage their diseases (see box). He's also boosted Byram's sales team from 42 to 55, which allows the company to better communicate its programs to referral sources, Smith said. The result: A growing business, said Smith, who requested that the company's annual revenue not be printed. Last summer, the company unveiled a Latino Diabetes Program, and is on the lookout for other opportunities to target large and growing sub-categories, Smith said. “Right now we don't have acquisitions on the radar screen,” he said. “We are focusing on continuing to improve each day and work with existing relationships to continue to build a stronger, bigger company.”