Store Redecorates Medical Concept

Hal DeJarnatt hopes to grow his home medical supply business by 50 percent with just a little change in scenery.

DeJarnatt is in the process of redesigning his Springdale store, Kim Lor Medical, to have more appeal to the customer. The softer design, which includes floor models of different products and antiques, is geared toward women.

DeJarnatt said 85 percent of the time, women are the caregivers.

He’s added several thousand dollars in inventory and spent about $75,000 to redesign the store and product line. DeJarnatt and a silent partner own the business.

Previously, Kim Lor was more focused on orthopedic supply distribution to surgeons and physical therapy clinics, DeJarnatt said. The store also does deliveries to health care facilities and performs in-home setups. Kim Lor recently bought two white 2005 Chrysler PT Cruisers to handle the tasks.

Insurance companies are lumping more items into the non-prescriptive category, DeJarnatt said. So instead of distributing the product through the physician’s office, doctors are sending more customers to DeJarnatt to pick up supplies, or durable medical goods he said.

“In our bracing and soft goods business, there has been a change from selling soft goods directly to the provider to our business actually placing the product in the home,” DeJarnatt said.

Kim Lor will bill the insurance company for the product so the physician’s office doesn’t have to.

“What is driving the consumer is actually having to come in where health care products were normally delivered in a professional setting,” DeJarnatt said. “That is why in some of the Wal-Mart [stores] in the Northeast you will see a durable medical equipment business in the front of a Wal-Mart store.”