Interview with an Entrepreneur - Stuart Crane - Definitive Homecare Solutions/CPR+

Contributed by Jeff Beeler – Managing Partner - Sync Creative

Stuart Crane is Co-Owner of Definitive Homecare Solutions/CPR+.




Tell me a little about how D.H.S. and CPR+ came to be.
I was a database application developer when I met Jeff Johnston, a home infusion therapy RN, in 1991 and over the next two years we created the first version of CPR+. In 1993, we formed Definitive Homecare Solutions (D.H.S.) to bring CPR+ to the home infusion therapy industry as an easy-to-use software application. Our first customer began using CPR+ in 1993 and since then, over 1200 Home Infusion, HME, Respiratory Pharmacy, Specialty Pharmacy, and Ambulatory Infusion centers in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam have implemented CPR+.

What drew you to healthcare as a profession in the first place?
My partner, Jeff Johnston, was a practicing nurse and he needed a software program to track patient information – my interests and background are in software, databases and technology – it just so happened that the application of software that I came into doing was for pharmacies and nursing.

How does someone that starts in healthcare make the switch to technology?
The key is to focus on how technology can be applied to healthcare, specifically how technology can be used to IMPROVE patient care, improve efficiencies of the business of healthcare, etc.

It seems easy for technology companies to overuse technology as a customer service tool, how has DHS avoided that potential pitfall?
DHS focuses on the value that the technology provides to the end-user / customer and not so much the technology itself. We look at the “soft-side” – the “human side” of technology and how technology is applied.

What's the one thing that you feel has been most instrumental in DHS’s success?
Doing as much as possible to improve the product and our processes as a company – and to always contribute the most VALUE while minimizing the amount of resources required to PROVIDE that value.

How can Columbus, as an emerging technology center, continue to grow and prosper?
Continue to foster investments in technology companies, and then allow the successful ones to share their experiences.

What's the smartest thing you've done in business.
Making our products as EASY TO USE as possible, AND as EASY TO BUY as possible.

The smartest non-technology thing you've done is business?
We have kept a personal connection with all of our customers.

Are there any areas of life where you feel technology should not apply?
Children’s books.

What's the biggest misconception about:
you?
I am so smart and I got straight A’s. (I had a 2.3 GPA)
your company?
We are a very small company of 10-20 employees (We have 55 and $10M in annual revenue)
your products?
They are strictly for homecare pharmacies (they are also for home medical equipment providers)
your competition?
They are just as big as us (they are 1/7th the size).

Name two songs or artists you have on your iPod that should never be on the same playlist together?
James Taylor and AC/DC