The History of Pocket Nurse by founder Anthony Battaglia sponsored by SimVS

In this episode, the Founder/CEO of Pocket Nurse sits down and talks with Jerrod and Deb about the 31-year journey of developing, strategizing, and branding Pocket Nurse. Currently, Anthony has 118 employees reporting to the company. His servant leadership shines in this interview. What a great story and inspiration Anthony is. 
As founder and CEO of Pocket Nurse, Anthony oversees the strategic vision, growth, and operational direction of the company. Anthony brings multidimensional expertise to his position and the industry at large. He’s recognized as a pioneer and visionary entrepreneur; however, he never forgets his hands-on nursing background. 

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Transcript

Disclaimer: 0:00

The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of anyone at Innovative Sim Solutions or our sponsors.

Sim VS Ad: 0:13

The Sim Café is thrilled to have SimVS sponsor this week’s episode. SimVS is already well known for their wide range of simulation products and commitment to innovation. On March 23rd Sim VS will launch the world’s first IV pump simulator! Visit http://www.simvs.com to be part of the launch event! SimVS- where commitment meets innovation!

Intro: 0:45

Welcome to The Sim Cafe, a podcast produced by the team at Innovative Sim Solutions, edited by Shelly Houser. Join our host, Deb Tauber, and co-host Jerrod Jeffries as they sit down with subject matter experts from across the globe to reimagine clinical education and the use of simulation. So pour yourself a cup of relaxation, sit back, tune in, and learn something new from The Sim Cafe.

Deb: 1:28

Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe. Today, Jerrod Jeffries and myself will interview Anthony Battaglia. Welcome Anthony from Pocket Nurse and please tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.

Anthony: 1:45

Oh, thank you Deb, for having me on. And like she said, my name's Anthony Battaglia. I'm the owner of Pocket Nurse. I was a medical ICU nurse in a Pittsburgh hospital and at that time in my career it was either gonna be a CRNA or a nurse practitioner. So that was kind of my route that I was headed towards. And uh, my business partner, my friend at the time, he had a product and it was called the Pocket Nurse. And it was a plastic case with vanish scissors pen, light pen, and a light on the end. And he said, why don't you try and do something with that? Back in January of 1992, I was in his office and I was in the back room. So he was a primary care doc and all the drug reps would come through for lunch and meet the staff and talk samples and that kind of stuff. I would talk to the reps before they talked to the staff and one of the reps, her name was Nancy and at time she worked for Astra Pharmaceuticals who had an office in Pittsburgh who made Prilosec. I showed her the pocket nurse and she took it back to the office and they liked it. So we still screened Prilosec on the uh, pocket nurse and that kind of started it because I didn't have any money back then. That was a great opportunity. And back then they were kind of moving towards medically relevant promotional items. They were getting away from pens and moving more towards the medically relevant promotional items. Since I was a nurse, we took all of their medications and their, we looked at their therapeutic class and then we matched the drug up with a promotional giveaway. We did the pocket nurse, we did stethoscopes, we did blood pressure cuffs, we did pen lights, anything that was medically relevant with a drug name. And then we just took orders from all the reps nationally. So we would just sit there and just take orders from all the reps for the drug company and fulfill those orders. So that was kind of my opportunity. But as I wondered throughout the day I'm thinking, you know, I really shouldn't have one customer. And that's pretty much what we had was just one customer. When you go to nursing school, you go to skills lab and you back then and you learned all your skills. When I went to nursing school, it was pretty much just like a room, a lab had a few beds in it, fuel porcelain mannequins. So I went around all the local nursing schools and asked, you know, where do they get your supplies? What do they like, what don't they like? And they pretty much all responded and said what they do, how they buy. And one of the things that stood out is they had to buy, buy a case, but do they really need a case of leg bags, you know, to teach what a leg bag is. We just started with a few products here and there, started bringing in products and breaking it down from a case to more of an each and started selling to local nursing schools. So you're talking 92, 93, 94. And again, as you know, simulation is kind of starting to pick up. Pilots have been doing it forever. Nursing and medicine decided that's a great way to learn and we just continued to grow schools and colleges started to build simulation centers. You know, we were part of that. We started to just obtain more product, uh, work with more manufacturers to increase our product line. And you know, now we're, we're well over five, 6,000 queues and we offer a lot more opportunity. Now, one of the great things that we offer with one of our partners grant fields is design surfaces. So if you're renovating or remodeling or really just updating your space, we have the ability with interior designers, CAD drawings to really work with a customer and develop and plan that space for them and also offer all those products in that space. Basically, we just kept on meeting the customer's needs. We always reach out and say, you know, what do you need? What are you looking for? What are you having a hard time buying or purchasing? And then we just kept on going with that model. And then eventually Zeneca bought, AstraZeneca, made Nexium m so then they dropped us cuz they, they thought we were too small. But by that time they phased out those promotional giveaways and we continued with the vocational education business and we just grew from there.

Jerrod: 6:08

So you've just changed the market conditions continuously throughout the years.

Anthony: 6:12

Yes.

Jerrod: 6:13

Can you say back then, what's the timeframe pocket nurses been around?

Anthony: 6:16

So we started in January of 1992, so this is our 31 year.

Jerrod: 6:21

Wow. Congratulations Anthony. That's, that's certainly duration.

Deb: 6:25

Yeah. How many people work for the company now?

Anthony: 6:28

Uh, we have 118.

Deb: 6:29

Nice. Very nice. Congratulations.

Anthony: 6:31

Thank you.

Deb: 6:33

Do you have a favorite or most impactful simulation story?

Anthony: 6:38

So, the most impactful is really helping nursing and all allied health curriculums develop their own simulation program. When schools look around and they want to increase enrollment, simulation lab is very important and, and one of the items on the tour when parents and kids are going through the colleges, universities to show what they have. So really being part of that in the background, even myself, I'm more of a background person. I like to work in the background and the, the opportunity to help schools and colleges develop their own simulation program. I is really what stands out. And then from an entrepreneurial standpoint, what stands out for me is pushing the nurse entrepreneur because that's a very vital role. I think I just read an article where CRNAs, you know, make the most money in a traditional nursing role. Yes. But if you're a nurse entrepreneur, you have many opportunities. But the thing that sticks out the most to being an entrepreneur is when you see your employees buy homes, buy cars, send kids to college, that's kind of where you feel successful. What you started and what you created is an opportunity for others to make a living and grow from that. So from an entrepreneurial aspect, the employees and from a simulation standpoint, it's more about the seeing the, the growth, the development of simulation programs within the colleges and universities.

Deb: 8:04

Great. Now what lessons did you learn during the pandemic and where were you guys at during the pandemic

Anthony: 8:12

Fear At the very beginning, we did close for two weeks. We just kind of shut down, let everybody stay home and then we kind of regrouped from the executive level and said, you know, what are we gonna do? As you know, you know, we're really a med surg dealer, we just focused towards education market. It was really our best year. You kind of hate to say that because it was a bad time of year, but for med surg dealers it was kind of the best time of year because of the need and demand. Then it came to, we brought everybody back for the distribution center and we just started shipping product. We really only sell to high schools all the way at the MDDA programs, colleges, university, anybody that teaches we sell to, except during Covid because we had had so many calls for hand sanitizer and alcohol and cleaning products, you know, just like everybody else. We did open that door a little bit and started selling to other dealers who needed it or other local nursing homes or police force or that kind of stuff. So we kind of went out of our box a little bit, but the need was great. So we tried to keep our customers supplied. It varied around the country, but some schools went remote learning, so they wanted the kids to have some stuff at home to practice with. So we worked with them to develop some of the tools that we do, but more for distant learning type of thing. And it was a busy time of year. It was hectic and hopefully in our lifetime we never have to see that again.

Deb: 9:41

Hopefully we won't.

Jerrod: 9:43

And two questions about the, have you still expanded into those different customer segments or have you went back to where?

Anthony: 9:49

N o, we went back. Yeah, we, well, n o, I shouldn't say that. Pretty much 80% we went back b ecause a gain, we like to stay in our own lane and there's other providers that do a great job in those areas. So we don't need to t ick our foot i n that door. But one of t he things that we did is during that time, school nurses actually reached out to us. O h w ow. So we started supplying some of t he school nurses with materials they need and w e d id c ontinue that and we did start a school nurse b y p ocket nurse division. So we've done that for two years maybe. And we're just kind of seeing how that goes. A nd we're going to the National School Nurse Association Conference in Orlando, Florida in June. That will be our second one. So we'll see how that goes. So that we may continue, that one is still being discussed and talked about and see how it goes. But for all the other ones, we just k ind o f went back in our lane. And just t o go back to education

Jerrod: 10:46

And then the, the second question is, when you said that you were seeing more remote, are you selling software products or suites or is it mostly all hardware or some sort of supplies?

Anthony: 10:58

Majority hardware. So it was like a totes. There was a skill kit and a bag type of thing where it had body parts and they would learn how to suction, how to put a Foley in, how to start an id. It was that kind of stuff. Now we do, we have a partnership with Body Interact. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that. That's more of a software program that we resell along with the medication cards. We have a medication software program that we also sell to learn how to teach administra medication administration. So there's a few, but software, vr, ar, we have some, but it's really not our wheelhouse. You know, our wheelhouse is mostly disposable medical supply type of products, education, diagnostic, infecti control, that kind of stuff.

Deb: 11:41

Now can you share with our listeners the biggest thing you'd like them to know? Something that when you learned it, it kind of changed the way you practiced. So essentially a personal aha moment.

Anthony: 11:54

Well, one, an entrepreneur who really thought a nurse could be independent and start a business and make money. We all go to nursing cuz we love patient care, we love patients. We, but there's a whole different world. And that's one of the things about nursing that when I get to speak, I usually tell people it's a vast opportunity. If you wanna do bedside, great. We need'em, they're great. It, it's a lot of work for those of us that have done it. I C U, you know where I worked, we had eight different ICUs. So you could specialize in, you know, neuro med surg, surgical, uh, cardiac there. You know, there's so much opportunity within a healthcare system. But step outta that and there's more opportunity, there's a few nurse entrepreneur organizations floating around. I would encourage people to look for that type of thing if they wanna pursue that. The biggest thing is opportunity. And it's amazing how much a nurse knows. So when I started a pocket nurse, I knew the products. I knew cling and gauze and, but I didn't know where it came from. Usually you just go to the supply room and grab what you need. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So you know the products, but they might not challenge, but it just took me a while. Who makes all this stuff? Cuz a nurse, you really don't care. You just grab what you need. But from a med surg dealer perspective, you know, you have to know who makes it. That was one of my challenges is just finding out who makes what. And then I just went through the alphabet and looked all the manufacturers up and see who made what and learned that way. But the big thing is opportunity and, and being a nurse, there's a lot of opportunity.

Deb: 13:27

Absolutely. I, I couldn't agree more. I like to look at it as a chapter book. I essentially started my career out in intensive care unit, got into emergency medicine, then I was director of nursing outta a nursing home. Then I was at um, one of the biggest college nursing goals for a long time and then opened my own company. So I totally agree that there's so many opportunities and you have to be, you have to be brave enough to explore them. And I think that's where entrepreneurs, they recognize that you do have to be brave enough to think outside, to think differently and to explore ideas that haven't been thought of before. We talked about, you know, Jared Ries and I often talk about man in the arena. Right?

Anthony: 14:13

Right.

Deb: 14:15

Getting through the door, coming through with a new idea and, and people will look at you like money, you're nuts. You have to be confident enough to move forward with that.

Anthony: 14:24

You know what's scary than taking a risk. You have to be willing to go out and just like you try, try again. The light bulb wasn't invented in one try, took thousands at a tries. I always say, you don't fail, you learn. So for every product or purpose that you want to succeed at, it's not like you wake up and think of it and it succeeds and you're successful. It's a lot of effort. You know, entrepreneurs are the only people that quit a 40 hour job to work an 80 hour job<laugh>. So it's a, I don't wanna say a struggle, but it's a fun struggle. It took me forever between ar AP and balance sheets and you know, and I'm like, this just isn't me. But at the beginning you have to do it, you know, you just work through it because you wear many hats as an entrepreneur at the beginning. It's something that you have to take care of at the beginning. Then nurture it about nursing is I work seven P to seven A at the hospital and then I ran the business during the day. So I never took money from the business. I lived off my RN salary and my benefits from the hospital, why I developed my business and then everything went back into the business. And that's great opportunity for nurses cuz we can do three twelves, you know, if you wanted to, while you're building your business,

Jerrod: 15:33

What has been the most challenging part out of three decades? I mean you've probably went through a lot. What, what are some of the biggest challenges you've faced and how have you overcome'em? Do you have any good examples or stories or just, you know, you can also make this abstract too if you want.

Anthony: 15:46

You know, there's daily struggles, say it just depends on what you wanna do for that day. But the ones that stick out is in, in our distribution center we have a conveyor belt and that's controlled by soft and we just, for some reason a company that put the software in it just wasn't working right. And we kind of struggled with that. And when that would shut down, that would shut down the whole, you know, distribution center cuz everything ran through that. We finally got that cleared up and I mean that's working great now. But that was a struggle that puts everything else on hold. Cause you have to deal with that. It depends what's on your plate for that day and you work through that and then all the shortages for covid, it affected the world. So just because you buy something from the US or something's made in the US doesn't really mean that every single park comes from the us. There's that issue that long-term back orders, we're still looking at long-term back orders or purchasing will send us a list of substitutions because they can't get a specific item or items have been discontinued because they just can't make it anymore. So there's that ongoing struggle. It's obviously was exacerbated with Covid but that was a big issue. Getting supplies or trying to find a sub for a specific supply. That was a big issue.

Jerrod: 17:02

The ones that mainstream media was that are the baby formula shortage in European. And then I just read another one that I think it's still going undergoing in the administration but when produce or I f orget if it w as poultry or o r meat or some sort of dairy, but y ou can say p roduce in the USA but it only has to be a packed in the U SA or something.

Anthony: 17:22

There is all kind you'll see made in the USA with foreign domestic parts. There's roles really there, FTC reps roles around all that. So you can look all that up on FTCs website and it'll explain and what you have to follow and guide for the percentages that are done in the US or made in the US and you know, that's all laid out. You just can't say made in the USA.

Jerrod: 17:44

Yeah, I mean, and then there's the toilet paper shortage.<laugh>.

Anthony: 17:49

We ended up, we, we shipped our friends in Canada some toilet paper that was uh, that was a unique moment

Jerrod: 17:55

<laugh>, that's, that's a sign of Goodwill, Anthony that that's really important.

Anthony: 17:58

Right.

Deb: 17:59

I was actually at the 2020 IMSH conference and Greg Viz was working with me. He had his tablet, we were doing a presentation on the pre-briefing checklist I'd created. And so we were doing this presentation, we had about 60 people in the room and I remember after the presentation Greg was saying he was really worried about Covid and I'm like, what are you, what are you talking about? He said, I'm really worried about this. And I, I couldn't really get my head around it. And then he was starting to say about how his computer's tablets were not being shipped. And sure enough, by the time I got home things were changing. Right.

Anthony: 18:36

Yep. Yeah, electronics was a big, uh, piece of that back order and hard to give products cuz the, the chips, you know, that was a big impact. Yeah.

Deb: 18:45

Right, right. Now is there anything you wanna ask Jerrod and I?

Anthony: 18:49

Well you own your own business now, so would you do it again?

Deb: 18:54

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It's been the most terrifying but most fun thing I've ever done.

Anthony: 19:02

Right.

Deb: 19:03

Yeah. How about you Jerrod?

Jerrod: 19:05

Yeah, so I'm the owner of Beaker Health Community Education platform. Know we measure impact for organizations while learning them revenue and back to one of your points, you know, the amount of hats you have to put on daily, if not weekly, and then how you're trying to solve different customer issues. And we're more business to business. So we're, we're dealing with large amount of users at one time and trying to roll out slowly to make sure, I mean, to your software platform on your, on your conveyor belt is the last thing you want as someone who's helping create a solution is to cause pain or discomfort for the user or the client. Cause you're only trying to do something that helps solve and give solutions. So it's just so fun, but it's so stressful as anybody would say. I, I think I've heard a quote that you age to your quit a 40 hour to work an 80 hour. It's like you aged 10 years and maybe two. So it's just, it's just a different set of challenges and I think with, with anything, if it's a corporate job or entrepreneurship, it's just tradeoffs of, of what's more fulfilling for you. But absolutely.

Deb: 20:03

Anthony, we're gonna ask you one more question and are there any final words that you'd like our listeners to remember this conversation by?

Anthony: 20:12

I think I go back towards opportunity. If you're a nurse or any really health allied healthcare professional, just think outside the box. If you want to do something different, you want to try something different, you know, go for it. You know, there's nothing really holding you back. There's opportunity. There's a vast array of projects that a healthcare professional can do and step outta your comfort zone. And if you have the want, then I say don't hold back and go. That's the biggest thing. The amount of determination which determines the one success, success or failure. So if your determination is strong, I'm gonna say don't let anything hold you back and go for it. And also don't let anybody tell you otherwise, you know, just go for it.

Deb: 20:58

I agree. I agree. Well, I wanna thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your contributions to healthcare. Jerrod, anything you wanna close us up with?

Jerrod: 21:08

No, I appreciate the time, Anthony, this was great. We have all different types of guests and some with your duration and tenure in the, in the space to helping, you know, from, from where you began as, as a nurse and decision of CRNA or NP all the way through where you are with, with the a hundred plus employees and, and helping who knows how many different organizations from academic settings of school nurses and all the way to to large organizations. So, so appreciate the time.

Anthony: 21:33

Thank you both for having me on. I enjoyed it.

Deb: 21:36

Thank you and happy simulating.

SimVS tag: 21:40

Thanks to Sim VS for sponsoring The Sim Café this week. Be sure to join their launch on March 23rd at www.simvs.com!

Outro: 22:00

Thanks for joining us here at the Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed, connect with us at www innovative sim solutions.com and be sure to hit that like and subscribe button so you never miss an episode of the SIM Cafe.