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TAGCarts was recently featured in The Lumberjack, Northern Arizona University’s Student Voice Since 1914, for aiding communities in Northern and greater Arizona with HEROCarts, pre-kitted single-patient use medical carts kitted with PPE, to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the complete article, by Trevor Skeen, HERE.
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.”
TAGCarts, Inc. was featured on VetLikeMe.org, a national news publication for U.S. veteran-owned businesses. Please see read the article below or click on the link here to see complete article and images.
HEROCarts Has Donated Hundreds Of Disposable Bedside Carts to Nurses and Patients
September 29, 2020 by David Coakley
Like most Veteran business owners, Taggart Neal never planned for a global pandemic. But when the coronavirus hit the U.S. earlier this year, the owner of TAGCarts™ pivoted to serve their healthcare clientele on the front-lines and in need.
“A good plan with the right team today is better than a perfect plan next week, “ Neal says, referring to one of his mantras since his days of service in the U.S. Navy.
Neal responded to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s call for healthcare companies to innovate in the face of COVID-19. Following his service to our country as a Navy Machinist’s Mate, Neal entered the medical industry. In his more than18 years of experience, he has served nurses and the greater healthcare community through medical cart and workstation sales and service. Most recently, he designed the first ever single patient use product family of medical carts. The Sacramento based HEROCarts™ project started in April and hundreds of disposable bedside carts have already been donated to nurses and patients who need them most.
HEROCarts™ are named after real HEROES – the nurses on the frontlines. These lightweight, durable multi-drawer carts on wheels are made out of recyclable paperboard and protect against cross-contamination while providing improved nurse workflow at the point of care. They’re also filled with personal protective equipment.
Neal’s start-up company, TAGCarts™ typically designs and manufacturers medical carts and workstations for hospitals. As the number of coronavirus cases skyrocketed, he immediately identified the void of medical carts and workstations in temporary pop up field hospitals and validated the nurses need for something less permanent to address the environment of care nurses now found themselves in.
The carts are assembled by U.S. Veterans and Americans with disabilities at PRIDE Industries in California. HEROCarts™ have been shipped out to hospitals in California and Arizona and they’re already making a difference. With partnerships ranging from state health departments to PRIDE Industries, HEROCart’s and their kitted PPE are now serving “Alternate Care Sites” and hospitals serving COVID-19 patients.
“I’ve dedicated my career to serving nurses medical carts and workstations that make their heroic jobs easier. Teaming up with U.S. Veterans and Americans with disabilities gives them dignity and honor building TAGCarts which serve to heal Americans in hospitals across the country… it’s a dream come true,” Neal says.
To learn more about the national news publication for U.S. veteran-owned businesses, VetLikeMe.org – please click here.
To learn more about TAGCarts and their single-patient use medical cart, HEROCart – please click here.
Thank you Gila River Healthcare for allowing TAGCarts to serve your HealthcareHEROES protecting the greater Gila River Indian Community. We are glad the PPE kitted and single patient-use HEROCarts will aid in your fight of COVID-19 and beyond. Additionally we’d like to thank the State of Arizona Department of Health Services, Dircks Moving & Logistics, PRIDE Industries, and Pinal County Public Health for teaming up to get the front-line nurse Heroes at Hau’paul Red Tail Hawk Health Center the HEROCarts they need. Christopher Lomahquahu of the Gila River Indian News reports here, see the link below: http://www.gricnews.org/index.php/grin-articles/2020-articles/september-4-2020-articles/grhc-receives-donation-of-recyclable-bedside-carts-to-assist-patients
Hundreds of PPE HEROCarts Donated To Arizona for Frontline Workers
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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