Curbell Electronics

Expansion isn’t just a buzzword when it comes to Curbell Electronics. Since its founding in 1960 as a distributor of pillow speakers for hospital televisions, the company has exploded. Curbell now offers a multitude of hospital equipment for a variety of health care areas —everything from nurse-call systems and hospital beds to televisions and fall management.

Doug Rockwood

Doug Rockwood, executive director of sales and marketing, took some time to speak with us from Curbell’s headquarters in Orchard Park, NY about the company’s rise and expansion, the changing face of the industry, and the Curbell’s secret to longevity and growth.

24x7: How did Curbell go from being a pillow-speaker provider to being a presence in so many other areas in the health care communication parts and services industry?

Doug Rockwood: Our relationships with the television manufacturers and nurse-call-system manufacturers allowed us to leverage our strong brand and branch out and offer additional products that were necessary in these installations, such as wall plates, cables, and receptacles. As we continued to support and supply product to the hospital-maintenance, facilities, and biomedical areas, these contacts asked us to carry other items that they were purchasing from other vendors. We continued to listen to our customers and understand what their needs were.

With a commitment to high quality and service, Curbell researches what other opportunities would fit our model and help its customers out. Today, we have five main product lines—nurse-call communication equipment, health care bed accessories, patient-monitoring accessories, fall-management products, and paging systems—and we work with individuals in biomedical engineering, maintenance, facilities operations, nursing, outpatient surgery, and more.

24x7: What makes Curbell different from other companies that offer similar products and services?

Rockwood: Our organization allocates resources to build a better infrastructure that is required to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations. The origin of our business was to offer customized products for each individual facility application. Our integration know-how and relationships with original equipment manufacturers set us apart from the competition. Curbell has been providing “hard-to-find” products to our customers and allowing them to have a one-stop shop for replacement products. In addition, we offer repair services on most of our products, giving customers the option of buying new, purchasing parts to do their own repairs, or sending them in for Curbell to repair.

24x7: What are a few trends impacting the health care communication parts/services industry? How are these issues affecting biomedical equipment technicians?

Rockwood: A major trend has been a decrease in resources. It is no surprise that hospitals are being required to do more with less—less people, less time, less money. In addition, we are seeing changes in regulatory compliance, an increase in the volume and complexity in patient monitoring, and the need for more equipment integration.

24x7: How does Curbell accommodate these changes? Where do you see the company heading?

Rockwood: We offer hospitals exactly what they need. We offer high-quality products that provide a cost savings, and we are the one source for several items that our customers purchase. We are continuing to develop and strengthen our relationships in the monitoring market to provide better integration tools.