Medical waste collector builds on its success
Is there a better time to be a medical waste collection company?
As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, Sharps Compliance Corp. is building on the 2019 success that propelled it to No. 10 on the Houston Chronicle’s annual list of the top performing public companies. The company, headquartered in Houston, works with small and medium-sized health care businesses around the country, collecting waste such as single-use syringes and expired drugs.
Businesses can either request collections or mail waste to Sharps Compliance’s processing facilities, which sterilize, then shred the trash.
Part of its success, CEO David Tusa said, is how the company’s 162 workers deal with medical crises. In recent years, for example, the company built receptacles to collect unused drugs as the opioid crisis shook American society and the health care industry.
It also expanded collection routes and mail-in waste services in 32 states to reach medical professionals as the delivery of health care reaches beyond centralized hospital systems.
“Health care has moved to the retail clinics, urgent care (centers),” Tusa said. “Our market is long-term care with more patients at home for treatment.”
Sharps Compliance reported $49.8 million in revenue in 2019, an 18.5 percent increase from its revenue of $42 million from 2018.
“It’s critical, with what’s going on not just in the country but the world, that the medical waste is being collected, transported and properly disposed of,” Tusa said.
Tusa expects demand to skyrocket once a COVID-19 vaccine is available, as doctors discard single-use syringes and medicine packaging.
Expansion is still on the books for Sharps Compliance despite the economic shutdown imposed by governments to slow the pandemic. In May, the company leased a 52,000square foot distribution facility in Pittston, Penn., expanding its existing operations in the Northeast.
Sharps Compliance expects to increase its capacity for processing medical waste from 10 million to 27 million pounds per year.
The company is also considering a further expansion of pickup in the 32 states it services and opening facilities to treat and shred waste in the Midwest and Southeast.
“It’s critical … that the medical waste is being collected, transported and properly disposed of.” David Tusa, CEO