Two decades ago, the durable medical equipment (DME) field was a different ballpark. There was less diversity in product lines, and interactions between providers and patients were more a technical process than personable relationships.
Those aspects inspired Dave Thom to start Howard’s Medical Supply.
Aleah Mickelson, Thom’s daughter—and now co-owner and rehab team lead— said her father felt certain needs weren’t being met in the community and that needed to change desperately. At the time, Thom owned a local independent pharmacy in Selah, Washington, where he grew up.
“He had his normal patients coming in asking, ‘Can you carry like incontinence supplies or can you get this specific type of supplies?’” she said.
So Mickelson and her husband Erik launched the medical supply portion of the company. Twenty-one years later, the company now has six locations throughout the state in Selah, Yakima, Richland, Sunnyside, Ellensburg and a new location in Moses Lake opening to the public by the end of July.
Describing themselves as a “family-run company,” Howard’s has always prided itself that family is at the heart of what they do. Mickelson’s brother is on the pharmacy side, and her children are even involved in the business. Mickelson said family is at the core of who they are as a company.
Howard’s has five core values that are practiced at all of their locations: community, accountability, resilience, excellence and service. Put them together and they spell CARES, something Mickelson said was completely unintentional.
“We’re trying to make a difference in our community, but we’re also focused on how we interact with our team members and how we can build those long-term relationships,” she said. “My dad, he has really passed down the excellence and the service. He’s a fixture in the Selah community. Everyone knows they can go talk to Dave, and that’s just the heart of who he is.”
Over the years, Mickelson said there’s been significant growth and evolution in the DME industry. Not only have there been huge technological advancements, the business landscape itself has shifted considerably.
“When we launched Howards, there were, I can’t even remember how many different medical supplies companies there were in Yakima,” she said. “There were a couple locally based ones, multiple national-based ones, and hospitals offered DME. Now, just one-by-one, businesses have either gone out of business or gone bankrupt or sold to other businesses. The landscape has really changed over time.”
With changes in insurance, competitive bidding and reimbursement rates dropping the ability to adapt will make or break a business. Through everything, Mickelson said, Howards has never lost sight of what’s important.
“We started in a small community with a focus on caring for that community’s needs, and that still is our focus,” she said. “Our relationship with the community is very relationship-based where we want to get to know the providers, and we want to have that lifelong relationship with our customers, too.”
Mickelson said another thing that sets Howard’s Medical Supply apart from other providers is the spectrum of DME that they offer. While bigger name suppliers may specialize in one specific area, Howard’s has always aimed to provide everything patients could possibly need. They even have in-house and out-in-the-field tech teams to ensure patients get the repairs and updates they need quickly and efficiently.
“If you’re wanting to make sure people can stay … with family at home for as long as possible, then it does make sense to offer more diverse products,” Mickelson said. “We do everything from pediatric to hospice because we recognize in the rural environment, it just doesn’t make sense to offer one product line. You’ve got to do it all.”