Atlas Unbound

The story of how Jim Boyd and the team at Scott-Clark Medical and Ultralife Corporation brought reliable power to the mobile computing cart industry.

It was really nobody's fault as the mobile cart industry grew up suddenly in the response for demand for computers that could be relocated within a WIFI environment in hospitals. In the beginning, the mid 1990s, there were only a few manufacturers who were producing mobile carts for U.S. Hospitals.

I met Jim Boyd in 2002 when I was looking for a way to get back into sales. I'd spent a number of years trying to develop a specialty internet business that would combine pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and teaching organizations to further knowledge in targeted areas within healthcare.

In 2001 I finally gave up on this effort and took and interim job as sales manager for a successful specialty magazine publisher. It was during this time I became aware of the movement of healthcare providers into Electronic Patient Records and the cottage industry that was growing around this activity.

Gary Woods had been with Mercedes Benz, in an international position, and recently joined his high school friend at NA Ware Mobile Computing in Annapolis, MD. Gary and I became friendly as he placed advertisement and articles into a magazine I was managing and when my interim contract ended he offered me a job in sales.

Opportunity comes in many forms and I jumped at the chance to get back into the healthcare market in this exciting and growing area. The entire product was being manufactured in Annapolis and I learned the business from the ground up under the tutilage of Jim Boyd and his son Jim.

We were small but we began scrapping for business and became known in the industry for customer support. We battled with companies like Stinger, Ergotron, Howard Computer, Artromick, EMS, Infologix among others. The rudimentary first generation mobile computing carts that supported point of care application in the early days of this century would almost be laughable today.

The idea caught on fast, but resistance from users was sometimes significant. I often was told, by a nurse, "I'd rather retire than have to do this." Meaningful use was only a developing idea in someone's mind, at the time, and most systems were simply scrambling to put together a wireless environment in which their equipment might work. Everyone was talking about the future and what that future wireless environment might entail.

More practically, there were problems with mobile carts. One of the significant problems was the weight. A second problem occured when local fire marshals stepped in and saw the proliferation of carts charging their large lead acid batteries in hallways. The combination of those two problems lead to the first step forward in power technology for mobile computing carts.

Swappable batteries were introduced by the Stinger Corporation around 2005. They called their product Mobius and the invention of a patented battery system that recharged in a station away from the cart seemed to solve the problem of both weight and cart parking in hallways.

However, just with all first generation products, there were some difficulties with the swappable batteries. Most users came to find that run times were not what they were used to with the old heavy batteries and that the swappable kind soon needed replacement under heavy use. The expense and logistic problems began to mount.

Jim Boyd began talking about several advancements in mobile computing in the 2005-2006 time frame that included early ideas about swappable batteries. However, our first foray into the arena was using a well-known battery product from a related field. After complete rejection from our first clients, for this new product, Jim backburnered the idea in favor of developing a hybrid medication/mobile computing cart in the summer of 2005.

This was the same year that we began to see the changeover to lithium batteries. This helped the difficulties in the weight of carts significantly but cart frames were made of metal until Rubbermaid entered the market and created a paradigm shift in design. Their carts were mostly plastic on a lightweight frame and the design and "look" of the cart was significantly better.

Lionville Corporation, of Lionville, PA, had been manufacturing medication carts since the early nineteen-sixties and had most of that market for that product wrapped up. They were quick to respond to Rubbermaid's threat with their own new design and incorporation of the lithium battery.

The struggle for business and increased competition caused consolidation in the industry and also forced some companies to close their doors.

In 2009 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was the catalyst for a second wave in the industry. Meaningful use, stage one, was in motion and fueled the fire for new investment in EHR technology and all the peripherals that went with that investment. During the next four years every healthcare facility, in the United States, either went out of business or complied with CMS requirements.

Lithium batteries became the standard for mobile computing carts but two problems still existed: The first was safety and the second was cost. Many hospitals looked to alternatives after one, or two, tries with carts that did not end happily for the facilty. There was still only one choice for swappable batteries and problems existing for lithium battery users.

Logiquip Corporation bought my company in 2012 and brought an infusion of energy and new ideas to the company. One of the main focuses of the purchase was to develop a product, not already available in the industry, that would "jump over" competitors and become and industry standard.

Jim Boyd's idea of a battery system that could be charged on or off the cart was revived. The idea was so revolutionary that Logiquip's executive team immediately realized the need for a partner. That partner search ended with Ultralife Corporation, a former Kodak Company, based in Newark, NY.

Over the next two years design and development occured on the product as well as a patent search to determine which elements of the new product could be patented. A patent was sought and issued in the United States in 2017, but the product was already selling well domestically and on a multi-national basis.

Scott-Clark's unique battery system gives the user the unique ability to charge LiFEPO4 smart batteries on or off the mobile computing cart. This was in direct response to user demands for both abilities within the same healthcare facility. Little did we know how well our new product would play in the changing healthcare landscape of the 20-teens.

Hospitals were quickly consolidating into healthcare systems as community hospitals found difficulties surviving the new shift to pay for performance in the industry. Larger, multi-regional, systems were the result of this consolidation. Many experts feel this trend will continue into the 2020s so that only a few large systems will dominate the U.S. landscape.

Larger enterprises seek enterprise solutions. Hospital systems inherited multiple facilities all with disparate equipment. This occured in mobile computing carts as well. System managers found they had hundreds, perhaps thousands, of carts all needed different parts from different technical support locations and all having one major problem: batteries.

A good number if those managers turned to Scott-Clark Medical which had been widely recognized and accepted as having the best power solution in the industry. More important, that power solution could be retrofitted to just about every cart in need. Therefore, one less headache could be conquered by implementing the Scott-Clark power system as an enterprise solution.

Healthcare systems are now turning to Scott-Clark to simplify their cart fleets and significantly lower cost of ownership. Scott-Clark is so confidant in the LiFEPO4 smart battery that it comes with a five year usage warranty. The logistic advantage of being able to swap, or charge the battery right on the cart, has been a winner among users.

Scott-Clark Medical is based in Burnet, TX and continues to manufacture in the United States. Our partner, Ultralife, assembles the battery product in their ISO 9000 certified manufacturing facility in upstate New York. Quality and consistency is standard in all Scott-Clark products.

New users can order the Scott-Clark battery on most mobile computing carts available on the market today. Our partners, and those former competitors who are now associated with us in an OEM agreement, have found that customers using our products are satisfied. Flexibility, reliability, and most of all safety, are important factors in making a decision for Scott-Clark today.

We continue to provide a turnkey system, under our own label, for government facilities and our existing customers. New customer inquiries can be made to [email protected] or by calling 512-756-7300 and asking for mobile cart battery sales. Visit Scott-Clark's website at www.scott-clark.com.