Former employee buys Loop Medical

ST. ALBANS, W.Va. - When Paula Vineyard, owner of Dunbar, W.Va.-based Elana Health, purchased Loop Medical from her former employer, she embraced the new and improved on the old.  

Loop Medical—formerly Loop Pharmacy and Home Medical Equipment—offers an array of home medical equipment and supplies, as well as respiratory and sleep services. They also have a fitting department, with three certified fitters for mastectomy products, therapeutic footwear, lymphedema pumps and back braces.

Although Vineyard recently acquired the business, she has a long history with previous owner Bill McFarland, a pharmacist. Thirty years ago, Vineyard, a respiratory therapist, worked per diem for McFarland, doing concentrator checks and maintenance on oxygen patients. 

“He was going to retire and he reached out to me last year to see if I was interested in buying the oxygen side of the business,” said Vineyard.

She was. She was also interested in Loop's fitting department, something Elana Health does not have.

"One of the things I've learned from going to the VGM Heartland conference is, either you get bigger or you get smaller,” said Vineyard.

Loop Medical also features a much larger showroom—800 square feet—than its sister store, Elana Health, allowing Vineyard to showcase more retail products and draw more walk-in business.

Vineyard has made some changes of her own to the store, such as display changes and hiring a contractor to build a dedicated CPAP fitting room for patients to look at and be fitted for masks.

“The respiratory therapist was really excited about that because that gives you a nice private place for patients to get trained,” she said. “And I think that's important.”