Print Story Email Story Discuss Story (0)

Recommend ( 0 )

News-Sun photo by KATARA SIMMONS Ron Layne founded Positive Medical Transport in 2006 as Positive Mobility. The company just received the 2011 Small Business of the Year Award.

Related Links

advertisement

published: Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Positive Medical Transport named top small business by EDC

By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY

christopher.tuffley@newssun.com

SEBRING -- In May 2008, Positive Medical Transport, known at the time as Positive Mobility Transport, was honored by the Economic Development Commission as start-up small business of the year.

Now the EDC has named Positive Medical Transport Small Business of the Year, 2011.

When founder Ron Layne opened shop as a medical taxi service, the company consisted of himself, his wife and their two sons.

Now Layne has a staff of 140 employees, 15 ambulances, eight support trucks, two 24/7 station houses -- one off of U.S. 98 and the other in Okeechobee with a third station in Polk County opening sometime in June.

Altogether, Positive Medical Transport services eight counties and receives about 15,000 calls a year.

Layne and his crews provide safe and comfortable transportation for people who need to get to doctors' appointments, dialysis and oncology treatments, wound care centers, transfer from one hospital to another, or get home after being released from a hospital.

In addition to the large number, Positive Medical has a wide range of vehicles -- from a four-wheel-drive ambulance to one designed for long distance, out of state travel to ordinary cars for local ambulatory customers.

The key to his success, Layne said, is the company's focus on customer service and punctuality.

"You treat every patient as if they were your own mother," he said, while taking a visitor on a tour of the station. "Do unto others, you know," then he stopped and smiled. "Some employees might be tired of hearing it, I say it all the time."

But Layne claims little credit for his success. "The good Lord has blessed us," he said, his gaze lifting to a wall sign in his office extolling service to God.

Lane, who is originally from Ohio, has been a first responder most of his life, starting when he was 16 in 1974 as a volunteer fir fighter.

He kept that up over the years, becoming a paramedic.

Layne had a day job in addition, serving in the sheriff's office of Preble County and rising to the rank of captain before retiring in 2005.

The idea of a medical taxi service had been on his mind for many years. In fact, in 1980 he began a one ambulance company called Dial A Medic -- "you know that was a while ago by the name," he grinned. "Who says dial anymore?"

Soon after opening his service, however, Layne received a promotion and no longer had the time to devote to his business, so he sold it to a larger company, Courtesy Transport, operating out of Cincinnati.

The idea, however, remained.

When he and his wife Marissa moved to Highlands County in 2005 -- he was retired and she had found a Heartland job through the Internet -- he decided to try again. This time as the focus of his full attention, the business took off and continues to grow. It hasn't been easy, Layne said, especially in the lagging economy with ever increasing fuel costs.

While most insurances and Medicaid will pay for medical transportation, "we have to be very efficient and flexible," Layne said.

Cutting edge software helps Layne be efficient. Dispatchers can track all ambulances and company vehicles on their computers. This means they know where everyone is at all times, making it easier to schedule pick-ups and deliveries, make on-the-fly reassignments, and plot the most direct routes.

With all-day-and-night coverage, meaning a crew is always available for a call, shifts are staggered.

For example, if a patient needs to be in Tampa for an oncology treatment at 7 a.m., it means leaving Highlands County around 5, so some crews report for work at 4 a.m.

Layne believes in working up the ladder.

"A person can come here and go to work as a driver, go through our own (basic and advanced) courses, attend the paramedic program at South Florida Community College, sponsored by the company, and advance right up through the ranks," Layne said.

When not cleaning vehicles, or driving, employees are encouraged to study in space set aside for that purpose.

Layne is accepting applications. Go to pmtinc.us for application forms and information. He said he understands the importance of mentoring.

Back when he was a captain in the Preble Sheriff's Office in the '80s, Layne got to know a young dispatcher, just graduated from high school. In late-night conversations, Layne told him about his idea of a medical taxi service.

In 1995 that dispatcher began his own transport service in Ohio, called EMT Inc.

What makes that interesting is he bought Courtesy Transport, which had bought Lane's Dial A Medic service, and so he now owned it.

Layne marvels at the connections. "I brought him on board with the idea," he said, "when I was a mentor to him. Now he has 80 ambulances and over 400 employees, and he has become a mentor to me."