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Member Spotlight: Tim Van Antwerp, Owner, Van's Medical Equipment of Lakeland

Published in Member Communities on March 03, 2021

Part of Something BiggerTim Van Antwerp has been a VGM member since 2008, but his story goes back a long way. He started in DME as a kid repairing wheelchairs in his father’s pharmacy. His father bought the pharmacy from his father (Tim’s grandfather). Tim and his brother, David, carried on the DME portion of the business while his other brother, Kevin, took over the pharmacy. Essentially, the Van Antwerp family has been serving the St. Joseph/Benton Harbor area in Michigan for about a hundred years.

About a decade ago, Tim partnered with his local health system (Lakeland Hospital) to serve the needs of Lakeland post-acute care and the rest of the community. Subsequently, Lakeland was acquired by Spectrum Health. At the end of 2020, Van’s and Spectrum reached an accord to part ways.

“Tim is dynamic, inquisitive, and nurtures his staff with continual education,” says Regional Account Manager Gerry Finazzo. “As a result, he engages his team for their input regarding DME services. It is a collaborative business environment.”

Retail is a big part of Van’s Medical. His showroom is expansive. At any given time, they have 20 lift chairs and a dozen scooters on the floor. Their bath safety area boasts multiple manufacturers to cater to virtually any customer. His staff is knowledgeable and attentive about all the equipment because Tim has his vendors do regular morning in-services, where the vendors sales reps equip Van’s team to address the needs of their customers. The entire staff will sit in on these in-services, including billers and respiratory therapists, all to make sure each staff member has a broad base of supplies and knowledge available to their patients.

“I would consider Tim to be an “early adopter” and one who embraces innovation,” states Gerry. “In addition to that, Tim is very engaged in our industry. He is eager to collaborate with other DME owners and managers. Sharing best practices and working towards a common goal is second nature to Tim.”

Tim recently shared about his DME business and how he has navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch it here!

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