MERCO Biomedical
Streamlining Biomedical Equipment Services

Modern medical devices have become more sophisticated and are expected to operate under stringent conditions and harsh environments. As such, healthcare facilities must ensure that all their in-house equipment and devices are safe, reliable, and compliant with federal and state regulations. Negligence in this regard can have significant financial and legal implications and pose substantial safety concerns for patients. This prompts the need for regular equipment maintenance, which is a challenge for most healthcare providers, given their lack of expertise and resources.

MERCO Biomedical—an independent sales and service organization specializing in biomedical equipment sales, service, and inspections— tackles these challenges head-on.

For over four decades, MERCO Biomedical has been recognized for its unrivaled expertise in medical and lab equipment repairs, services, and inspections. The company’s offerings are ideal for a wide range of healthcare providers, including hospitals, community health centers, urgent care, medical clinics, health departments, research facilities, laboratories, prison health systems, surgical and dialysis centers, and education.

MERCO Biomedical’s service portfolio enables clients to check the functionality and accuracy of instruments, circumvent large-scale repairs, de crease property damage, and extend the life of medical de vices. Subsequently, clients can improve safety and quality conditions for patients and staff while eliminating unprecedented and costly equipment downtimes.

“We are a certified woman-owned small business driven by the mission to equip clients with fully-functioning and optimal medical and lab devices leveraging our wide range of proactive inspection and preventative maintenance services,” says Krista Kalweit, the CEO of MERCO Biomedical.

How it All Began

MERCO Biomedical traces its roots back to 1978 when George Kalweit and Patricia Kalweit who have extensive experience in medical device servicing—established a small facility to offer home healthcare, the first glucometer sales for diabetes, and laboratory equipment services. Their aim was to provide high-quality services and equipment for customers. The duo’s efforts soon triumphed, and the family owned and operated company started diversifying its expertise to the laboratory, veterinary, and clinical medical equipment services and inspections. By 1993, MERCO Bio medical expanded its portfolio to include biomedical refrigeration and biomechanical services.

Though innovation was already underway at MERCO Biomedical, the year 2000 saw a significant shift when Kris ta—who served in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Medical Service Corps as a Captain—joined the company and put her expertise to work.

Under her leadership, the company’s growth was shifted to high gear to meet the surging demand for equipment inspections and calibrations in the medical industry. In the years that followed, MERCO Biomedical expanded its services into more verticals, such as highly detailed OEM quality inspections for anesthesia, radiology, and imaging. Success followed, and the company’s equipment sales and services have grown in revenue and customers every year.

The Confluence of Expertise and Excellence

Today, MERCO Biomedical delivers a two-fold service offering for its clients. First, the company per forms inspections to OEM specifications that meet various governing body requirements such as AAAASF, AAAHC, CLIA, CMMS, JC, NFPA-99, NUCCA, and UCA. MERCO Biomedical has a range of superior quality diagnostic test equipment in-house, allowing it to inspect clients’ medical devices precisely and efficiently. All of its testing systems are certified by a third-party calibrator and accurately calibrated annually to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. This way, the company ensures that it uses the best and most updated set of equipment to meet clients’ varying needs.

MERCO Biomedical documents all medical and lab equipment inspection data and makes it available to clients via its secure web-based system. The database provides customers with a complete list of their medical equipment and de vices both active and inactive along with the inspection history. Providing clients with easy access to this data enables MERCO Biomedical to maintain transparency throughout the process.

Other than the inspection service, MERCO Biomedical offers premium repairing services that help clients maintain their medical and lab devices in the optimal, OEM specified working conditions. The company performs diagnosis and provides clients an estimate with recommendations to bring the systems back to the OEM specifications and regulatory standards. It can be a quote to either repair their equipment or replace the device if it’s a severe issue.

A Professional and Responsive Partner

MERCO Biomedical adopts a meticulous engagement approach, treating clients as partners to provide the best service and value in the industry.

To do this, the company leverages a robust service dispatch system that handles everything from scheduling staff to invoicing and tracking equipment in a systematic manner. When a customer approaches MERCO Biomedical, the service dispatch system helps them find the available and competent staff to meet the demand of the specific client. Once technicians are as signed, the company tracks them through a dashboard with near real-time update regarding the progression of the work.

The system also allows team MERCO Biomedical to set up recurring inspections based on clients’ requests, where it automatically finds and assigns the job to the right staff. “From staff allocation to tracking, we have completely digitized the processes,” adds Krista. The company has QC personnel in the field who works directly with its team to monitor their operations and ensure quality. This contributes to MERCO Biomedical’s service excellence.

Another key element that complements MERCO Biomedical’s services is its team of certified business development managers and biomedical equipment repair technicians with a repository of knowledge and extensive experience. These factory-trained experts never shy away from challenges and constantly push the boundaries to address clients’ specific needs efficiently.

Ensuring Competitive Viability

The focus on the quality of service has enabled MERCO Bio medical to successfully serve a wide range of clients.

Going forward, the company is planning to expand into more states in the U.S., especially in the Southern and North eastern regions. The management team at MERCO Biomedical is also keen on growing its service portfolio across various verticals through acquisitions. The company is looking for the right growth partners to achieve these goals.

Needless to say, MERCO Biomedical’s growth from a mom-and-pop shop to a multi-million dollar business is the result of Krista’s industry experience and an unwavering dedication to serve the healthcare community. The visionary leader has truly transformed MERCO Biomedical into an agile company that always strives to stay at the forefront of assisting clients in keeping their equipment safe and compliant for their patients and their staff.