For four years, Northern Medical Mobile has been providing companies across Northern Ontario with occupational health and safety services.
Now, the company has added more resources to better help its clients.
At the beginning of September, the Hearst-based provider was acquired by Workplace Medical Corp., one of the largest occupational health providers in Canada.
“This allows us in Northern Ontario to not only have access to all of their resources, but it's also going to give us that much more assistance in what it is I've been trying to do here in the North for the past few years,” said Kevin Gow, vice-president of operations.
For the time being, Northern Medical Mobile will combine its name with that of its parent company.
Discussions between the two companies took nearly seven months before a deal was reached.
“We have a wide range of services to help companies deal with medical issues,” said Bill Shapiro, owner of the Hamilton-based Workplace Medical. “Presenting that to the companies in Northern Ontario through Kevin will be a great opportunity for us and for all our companies to raise more awareness of the services that are available for them.”
Northern Medical Mobile was founded by Gow and his partner Pierre Dalcourt in 2006, and began to service companies in early 2007.
As a wellness organization that specializes in occupational and industrial health and safety, they went directly on site with their large mobile trailer called the Clinic on Wheels.
“We would assist their safety team by not only monitoring their safety program, but also by assisting them with their training programs, so the employees get the best benefits that are available for them,” said Gow.
Nothing will change with new ownership in place.
“We simply now have additional support...that we didn't have prior. They have much more access to different physicians in Ontario, that if we need someone to conduct a medical, they will have more resources for that.”
Workplace Medical also has a full sales staff that can introduce safety to all companies.
“I'm not a salesman and have never taken a sales course in my life,” laughed Gow. “It's a real knack to do that and it's not my knack. I'm the first person to admit that.”
With the addition of Northern Medical Mobile in Hearst, Workplace Medical now has five locations including its Hamilton headquarters, as well as Toronto, Hamilton, London and Sarnia.
“I think now that we are on the ground in Northern Ontario, we can more effectively service clients and expand our client base out of there,” said Shapiro.
The history between Gow and Shapiro goes back long before the acquisition.
Gow worked with Shapiro several years before and they've since remained in contact.
When Gow and Dalcourt started their business, Gow said he gave Shapiro a call to let him know of the future plans of his company.
“I never lost touch with them,” said Gow. “When I moved up here, I knew they had a few clients in the area, so I contacted them to let them know I was back in the fold.”
Workplace Medical had been managing the area remotely for quite some time and didn't mind contracting out jobs.
“When Kevin moved up there and started his business, he became a good sub-contractor for us,” said Shapiro. “That naturally evolved into coming under our umbrella.”
Northern Medical Mobile now can provide a whole range of services such as first aid training and prevention services, such as pre-employment testing.
Northern Medical Mobile had an active base client of roughly 50 companies.
As a division of Workplace Medical, the customer base has increased to more than 5,000.
