Small hyperbaric clinic teams with Renown to expand

For 10 years, Geoffrey Flyer played it conservatively as he built Northern Nevada Hyperbarics Inc. with his brother, Richard.

The Reno company's focus on retained earnings and strong credit relationships paid off as it was able to tap the credit market this year to develop a fast-growing hyperbaric oxygen therapy clinic in partnership with Renown Health.

The Flyer brothers invested in hyperbaric chambers and extensive renovation this summer as they launched a hyperbaric clinic at Renown's Center for Advanced Medicine in downtown Reno.

That marks a major expansion from the company's previous location in the Meadowood area.

(In hyperbaric treatment, patients enter a chamber in which they breathe 100 percent oxygen. Treatments generally run about 90 minutes patients read or watch TV in the meantime and the therapy is used to speed healing of wounds, radiation damage and other conditions.)

As the Flyer brothers looked to grow the clinic, it became obvious that they needed a hospital affiliation that would allow them to serve patients covered by government-paid insurance such as Medicare.

Renown, meanwhile, was looking for a way to add hyperbaric treatment to its existing wound-care center.

Kirk Gillis, vice president of worker's compensation for Renown Health, says Renown was wary about the big capital investment that would be required if it launched a hyperbaric clinic on its own.

Geoffrey Flyer says total investment by Northern Nevada Hyperbarics and Renown in the facility was approximately $1.3 million dollars. This included acquisition of new hyperbaric chambers as well as the supporting infrastructure and ancillary costs such as marketing and supplies.

In the past several years, Gillis says, Renown talked to several companies that provide turn-key wound care and hyperbaric clinics.

"Most, if not all, vendors were national corporations," Gillis says. "And at the end of the day, we really wanted to do business with a company that shared the same northern Nevada roots as Renown."

After more than a year of talks, Renown struck a deal to purchase hyperbaric services from the Flyer brothers' company.

Technically, they now operate two companies. Northern Nevada Hyperbarics Inc. continues to serve patients whose treatment is paid by commercial insurance. Nevada Hyperbarics, meanwhile, provides a set number of hours each day in which it serves Renown patients, including those with government-paid insurance.

It's now looking to expand the number of hours available for treatment as demand continues to rise.

The contract, Geoffrey Flyer says, wouldn't have been possible if the company hadn't been managed conservatively for the previous decade.

"We made sure that we maintained a high credit rating," he says.

That, as well as the company's ability to buy a new hyperbaric chamber out of retained earnings, helped convince First Independent Bank of Nevada to provide financing for the expansion and move.

Clark & Sullivan Construction was the general contractor on the project.

"It was relatively complicated because of the codes they needed to work with because of the oxygen," Geoffrey Flyer says.