NSM strengthens Northeast presence with big acquisition

FRANKLIN, TN -- National Seating & Mobility announced last week that it had acquired Burke Medical Equipment, creating the largest rehab seating and mobility provider in New England. Terms of the agreement were not made public. Burke Medical was founded in 1989 and provides custom wheelchairs and adaptive seating systems, manual and powered wheelchairs, and repair services. Burke Medical operates from a new, 13,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility in Chicopee, as staffs offices as well in Lawrence, MA, and Raynham, MA. "We're very excited about being part of NSM," said Fran Burke, Burke Medical's founder and CEO and board member of the New England Medical Equipment Dealers' Association. "NSM is a very future facing company and brings a lot of professionalism and resources. With NSM we'll have the advantage of their information technology, their management, and their financial strength. We much prefer being part of NSM than competing against them. With everything going on in the rehab industry today, the timing of this move couldn't be better for our clients and RTSs." Mike Ballard, founder and CEO of NSM stated, "What interested us about Burke Medical was the dedication to quality and client care throughout their company. I'm especially happy to be adding Fran to our management. Fran and I share a vision of the future of Rehab and as partners we can certainly create a stronger impact." Burke's director of operations, Matthew Burke, recently left the rehab business to launch software to serve the DME industry. He also resigned as chair of AAHomecare's Rehab and Assistive Technology Council. National Seating & Mobility is the only national company dedicated exclusively to specialized seating and mobility. It operates across the United States from more than 50 strategically located facilities and two administrative and operational support offices.