TAGCarts offers disposable medical equipment

Trevor Skeen Sep 23, 2020

Before the pandemic reshaped businesses around the world, Taggart Neal and John Krueger planned to market their hospital-durable medical equipment. However, the onset of COVID-19 quickly changed those intentions, and the pair unveiled a single-use, biodegradable medical cart stocked with personal protective equipment (PPE) — the HEROCart. 

Neal and Krueger donated 250 HEROCarts to the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS), along with an additional 150 units to the Navajo Nation. These supplies are commonly used at alternative care sites, which the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services documented as a “broad term for any building or structure that is temporarily converted or newly erected for health care use.” 

The reservation spans over certain parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, and local hospitals were filled with COVID-19 patients in May. When alternative care sites were established to treat more people, Neal said 500 beds were sometimes limited to just two medical carts. However, the donated HEROCarts were applied to triage testing rooms, swing-bed areas, outpatient clinics, school nursing facilities and a number of other services, which helped to improve these operations.

Neal is the CEO of TAGCarts, a company he launched in February 2019 with Krueger, an economic development specialist who serves as an advisory board member. The designs, prototypes and products are from Sacramento, California, although both business people received degrees from NAU — Neal from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Krueger from the W.A. Franke College of Business. While adjusting their plans from hospital-durable medical equipment to temporary carts was a big change, Neal said it was an easy decision. 

“It may sound cliche, but it wasn’t really a question,” Neal said. “The world was in crisis, and everyone from the governor of California to the president of the United States was asking health care companies to innovate and help.” 

Meanwhile, Krueger described hospitals as environments of care that are designed to be permanent and planned. The temporary nature of alternative care sites, however, can lead to challenges in regularizing patients’ treatment, but HEROCarts may provide an answer.

“Each of those environments has their own specific types of carts,” Krueger said. “Without them, the nurses and the doctors — all the health care providers — have a totally different flow of care. How can we give them [alternative care sites] some of the standardized processes in a manner that’s conducive to the pandemic or to a disaster?”

According to the company’s website, each HEROCart contains a lid, upper tray, three drawers and four swivel casters. Inside the carts, health care professionals can find five N95 masks and 15 pairs of medium, large and extra large gloves. For anyone considering donations, the carts are bundled at $250 each.

An email from Kellie DeMarco Communications, a public relations and media company also based in Sacramento, stated that TAGCarts is unable to share the internal and working costs of its services. However, the expenditures were described as “dynamic and proprietary,” which means that cost, scale and pricing models are subject to additional changes. 

“While an innovative and patent-pending product, the competitive marketplace we participate in prevents us from sharing internal operational costs including manufacturing,” the email stated. “Production is a mere fraction of a traditional medical cart equivalent typically $2-$5k/each.” 

All 150 HEROCarts donated to the Navajo Nation were shipped to Chinle, Arizona, and different areas received distributions thereafter. Neal said the single-use medical carts were used at Sage Memorial Hospital in Ganado, Arizona, along with another facility south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

Upon receiving its contribution of 250 HEROCarts, AZDHS shared the equipment with a number of counties and tribal lands around the state: Apache, Cocopah, Gila, Navajo, Pima, Pinal, San Carlos and Yavapai among them. Neal also discussed his plans to travel back to Arizona from Sacramento to conduct in-service trainings at various medical facilities applying the company’s product. By carefully working with frontline nurses, doctors and other medical staff, Neal said he can learn more about developing his ideas.

In partnership with PRIDE industries, HEROCarts are assembled by veterans and people with disabilities. While addressing this business model, Neal said “corporate social responsibility” is at the center of TAGCarts’ work, along with the sustainability of its products. 

Neal, Krueger and the other employees at TAGCarts are considering new applications for their single-use medical equipment, but they also want to stay devoted to current investors and business partners. In Yemen specifically, Neal said the 1.3 million people fighting through population displacement could benefit from portable PPE. 

“Additionally, while we move to a ‘for purchase’ revenue model — away from the hundreds we’ve donated — part of our model is to continue to identify and serve communities and populations who may not be readily available to purchase,” the email stated. “If you want a HEROCart, we’re looking for like-minded, forward-thinking healthcare systems to partner with us!”

Both business people attended NAU at the same time, although Neal studied criminal justice and Krueger economics. Additionally, they each worked at restaurants in west Flagstaff — Chili’s and Subway to be specific — but never met each other while working toward undergraduate degrees. They shared their passion for NAU and the greater Flagstaff community. 

“We both have a deep love for Northern Arizona University, Lumberjacks in general and Coconino County and Flagstaff,” Neal said. “John [Krueger] and I are testaments to that.”

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Arizona 3TV News Coverage Video HERE

ARIZONA, USA – The Arizona Department of Health Services just got a huge donation of personal protective equipment for our front line workers.

Hundreds of single-use bedside carts full of supplies for nurses and COVID-19 patients were sent to the Navajo Nation and eight of our most at-risk counties.

TAGCarts CEO Tagg Neal graduated from Northern Arizona University and used to live in the Valley. So when he saw Arizona at the global epicenter in the peak of the pandemic, it was a no-brainer to pivot his new business to help.

“We saw the environments of care over 1,100 pop-up field hospitals erected by the Army Corps of Engineers, and we noticed that the nurses didn’t have the same environment of care with carts and storage and access that they had in the hospital,” said Neal. “They told us, ‘There (are) only two carts in here and 500 beds!”

“Any stressed environment leads to omissions of care, medication errors, so on and so forth,” Neal added.

Knowing alternative care centers for COVID-19 patients would already be stressful environments, his team was confident they had a solution.

“We took an old idea off the shelf to design a cart with 90% of the utility for less than 10% of the cost. So we came up with a product then named it after the frontline heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic and everyday, the nurses,” said Neal.

Their HEROCart is stocked with single-use personal protective equipment like gowns, gloves, masks, and other supplies. They are all fully recyclable in a bio-degradable cart that comes with wheels to help streamline safety and efficiency. Nurses at the Gila River Red Tail Hawk Health Center say having to run all over their sprawling campus can be tough so they’re looking forward to using the carts to keep supplies more easily accessible. They just got 54 of the donated HEROCarts.

So whether it’s a rural tent pop-up for overflow care or a clinic on standby for surge capacity like Red Tail Hawk, HEROCarts keep all supplies bedside, so nurses can focus on the patients. There’s even a drawer for patients to store personal items with dignity.

“Your personal diabetic medication, your eyeglasses, cellphone, wallet. And the feedback that we’re getting is, yeah, it’s a, it’s a wonderful product with a lot of value for those environments,” said Neal.

And from packaging to shipping, where they found a Phoenix moving company, Dircks Moving & Logistics to bring the donated carts here for free. It’s a project they’re more than proud of.

“Not only is this product helpful and useful, it’s been assembled by veterans and Americans with disabilities here in the United States of America,” said Neal.

In addition to the 250 carts donated statewide, TAGCarts also donated another 150 HEROCarts to the Navajo Nation, and they’re doing the same in California, where they’re now based, investing more than $150,000 in our front line workers.

“When you’re doing the right thing, the right way with the right people for the right reasons, there’s nothing that can replace that feeling,” said Neal.

Nicole Crites anchors 3TV’s Good Evening Arizona weekdays. Nicole also digs deep into issues affecting Arizonans.  You’ll see her reports on 3TV News at 9 p.m. Copyright 2020 KPHO/KTVK (KPHO Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.

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Veterans embody the qualities of successful entrepreneurs: leadership, dedication, resilience, and the ability to pivot during uncertain times. Taggart Neal, a United States Navy Veteran, recently rose to meet the current challenges and needs of medical professionals around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taggart Neal first reached out to his local Veterans Business Outreach Center in 2009, when he began receiving complimentary business consulting and training services. American River Medical was then founded, a company servicing healthcare clients in medical cart and storage solutions.
Taggart received the VBOC 2017 Small Business Champion of the Year…

…To read how TAGCarts™ pivoted to keep nurse healthcareheroes safe and the HEROCart project – Please see complete PDF link below for entire PSA (Public Service Announcement)

PSA – Veteran Owned Business TAGCarts™ Pivots to Respond to COVID-19 PDF

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A Veteran owned company in Sacramento, California designing hospital carts halts development to create “Pop-Up” single-use medical carts to help keep nurses safe by reducing cross contamination in COVID-19 environments of care.

American Healthcare Heroes are placing themselves in constant risk for exposure to COVID-19. TAGCarts halted design and development of top-quality, best in class heatlhcare medical carts, workstation carts, and smart rail systems to address the safety, and efficacy of healthcare professionals in a temporary and semi-permanent environment of care. They did so by designing a single-patient use, “Pop-up”, biodegradable medical cart family, the HEROCart.

HEROCarts patent-pending features, advantages, and benefits set it apart as the first and only medical cart designed for pop-up heatlhcare, rapid deployment, and emergency field hospitals like the ones being developed to serve COVID-19 victims in California, across the USA and around the globe. It further addresses long-term storage needs for hospital patient surge capacity requirements and emergency / disaster preparedness / response centers around the globe by shipping and storing flat-packed until they are needed by nurses and their patients.

For More information on the HEROCart please see entire press release below and / or contact TAGCarts.

Download the PDF http://tagcarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeroCarts_PressRelease_FINAL.pdf

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