Premiere service leads to Quality Medical’s success story

Groves Chamber awards “Business of the Year” status

Courtesy photo

pital bed. I didn’t know anything about electric hospital beds.”

Tinsley said the family member was a double amputee, who was just put in a nursing home as he lost his wife a couple years earlier. The nursing home presented a problem, as it only had a manual hospital bed that meant that a double amputee would not be able to crank and adjust the bed.

Tinsley was determined to find a solution and took matters into his own hands.

“So I put an ad in the paper wanting to buy a good used electric hospital bed,” he said. “I got four or five calls, and I bought one of them and took it to him and set him up. He’s comfortable now without having to wait for somebody to come crank the head up a little bit.”

A week later Tinsley received more calls, stemming from the ad he previously put in the paper. One of these calls planted the seed that changed his life.

“The guy said ‘Hey, I see you put an ad in the paper wanting to buy electric hospital beds,’ he said. “I said, ‘Yeah, but I’ve already bought one.’ He said ‘No I want to buy one, did you have more than one?’ I said, ‘As a matter of fact I did, I’ve got two or three.’ He said, ‘I’ll buy from you if you deliver.’ So I bought another one, cleaned it up, made sure everything worked good and delivered it.”

Tinsley quickly learned how to clean up and repair electric hospital beds and expanded the business to wheelchairs and other medical equipment.

Quality Medical grew from being a repair shop for a variety of medical equipment and even expanded through servicing mobility carts (also known as ‘Mart Carts’) for Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot and Sutherlands throughout Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana.

It also serves the community by servicing medical equipment for extended care facilities such as Oak Grove, Magnolia Manor, Rescare, Bonne Vie and Spindletop.

The business went from a repair shop to a full retail store selling an expansive inventory of wheelchairs, lift chairs, scooters, power wheelchairs, canes, walkers, rollators, knee scooters, vehicle lifts, portable oxygen, bathroom safety and transport chairs.

Despite expanding into retail, Tinsley always kept the repair business at the core, as he feels he serves a niche not many other shops serve.

“We found out that nobody is doing repairs on medical equipment that’s selling them,” he said. “And that’s to this day.”

Tinsley continues to service everything they sell and even some medical equipment not originally sold from the business, from Jasper to Lake Charles. The business is also a Veterans Administration contracted business with Michael Debakey VA in Houston and is certified and trained with numerous major medical equipment companies.

Tinsley and his wife, Sandy, have always been community involved. Sandy Tinsley owned a dance studio for 30 years and is a past Small Business Award recipient. Their children went to Port Neches-Groves school district.

Tinsley is a long-standing member of the Groves Chamber of Commerce and is a former associate director. In addition, Tinsley was the founder and first President of the Groves Beautification Committee, leading efforts to beautify Groves.

This connection with the community and the lifelong relationships built is at the root of what he and his wife do with their business, as they love to call Groves home.

“Quality Medical and Mobility has developed lifelong relationships with many of our customers,” the couple said. “We enjoy the opportunity to help friends and clients maintain their independence and enhance their quality of life.”

Quality Medical and Mobility is located at 4249 Lincoln Avenue in Groves. They can be reached at 409-963-1196. It was named Groves Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year.

— Written by Tim Cohrs