Masimo Corp. Chief Executive Joe Kiani says he’s “encouraged by our progress to date” as his company moves into the last 1 ½ years of a 10-year plan it established when it went public in 2007.
Kiani shared thoughts about that plan on a conference call with investors and analysts after the Irvine-based company released first-quarter results this month.
“We see many positive developments ahead,” he said.
Masimo’s core signal extraction technology-monitoring business benefited from a “strong flu season, which led to [a] greater than 4% increase in hospital admissions compared to last year’s [first quarter],” he said.
He added that the core monitor business is continuing to gain market share and that the company’s base of installed monitors is expanding 9% to 10% annually.
“We anticipate greater adoption and utilization of Masimo technology that provides unique benefits to our customers and ultimately their patients,” Kiani said.
He later turned his thoughts to Masimo’s Rainbow product line, which he characterized as “quite promising,” although its revenue fell 5% to $12.2 million in the first quarter.
“The strong clinical interest hasn’t yet translated into significant growth, due primarily to extreme fixed fiscal conservatism of hospitals and our inability to fully present the value of Rainbow due to our current limited number of approved indications for rainbow, but we view that as a passing phase we have to patiently go through,” he said.
Masimo’s overall profit came in at $20.5 million, down from $22.6 million in 2014’s first quarter that included a legal-related gain. The company’s revenue was up 11% to $154.5 million.
Advanced Practitioners Studied
A newly published national study looking at the ratio of nurse practitioners and physician assistants to intensive care patients could help hospital administrators better determine appropriate staffing levels in acute and critical-care units, according to the Aliso Viejo-based American Association of Clinical Care Nurses.
The association provided a research grant for the study, which was based on 433 online responses from physician assistants and nurse practitioners who belong to the nursing association and to the American Academy of Physician Assistants or the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
Researchers looked at factors that impact the provider-to-patient ratios in such units, including the severity of patients’ illnesses, the number of patients, and the number of providers in the units, the AACN said in a news release.
“Nurse practitioners and physician assistants have become essential members of the ICU team who can assist in patient-care management, as well as promote implementation of evidence-based [medicine] and continuity of care,” Ruth Kleinpell, the study’s lead author and head of Rush University Medical Center’s Center for Clinical Research in Chicago, said in the release.
Kleinpell added that the results “provide much-needed guidance for those responsible for appropriate staffing coverage and strategic planning for patient care in acute and critical care units.”
New Direct Flow CEO, CFO
Santa Rosa-based Direct Flow Medical Inc., which has a manufacturing operation in Lake Forest, named Daniel Lemaitre its new chief executive.
He replaces Bernard Lyons, who will be retiring from the post, and will work out of the Santa Rosa office.
Direct Flow makes less-invasive heart valves.
Lemaitre’s career includes serving as chief executive of CoreValve LLC, an Irvine-based maker of transcatheter heart valves. Medtronic PLC, which has about 1,300 workers in OC, acquired CoreValve for $700 million in 2009. He was also a medical device analyst with Merrill Lynch and Cowen & Co. earlier in his career.
Direct Flow also named David Boyle its chief financial officer, a new position.
Boyle was most recently chief financial officer with Clearwater, Fla.-based Ogenx Therapeutics Corp. He has served in the same role with four other healthcare companies.
Centers Get Federal Money
Three new community health centers in Orange County received nearly $2.1 million from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, courtesy of federal healthcare reform.
Share Our Selves Corp. in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana-based Vietnamese Community of Orange County each received $704,167 in grants, and La Habra-based Friends of Family Health Center received $650,000.
In all, there were 23 grant awards to health centers in California totaling $14,779,170, money that’s projected to serve 117,582 new patients.
