Two Rhode Island companies were included among this year’s Inc. (Magazine) List of 500 Fastest Growing Companies. Lighthouse Medical Management ranked 190 and Qualified Resources Inc. of Cranston was 292. Started in 1993 by Steve Tortolani, Bill Scatchard and Bettina Chrisafulli, Lighthouse Medical Management, which is based in Providence, has grown by 1300 percent in the last five years. The company, which started with only 13 employees and two doctors now has 130 employees and more than 1,000 doctors. The company aids doctors with billings, provides medical consulting, and accounts receivable management.
“This has been a wild, evolving process,” Tortolani said. “The practice of medicine has gotten very complex and the expertise we provide helps keep doctors within medical guidelines, and still make a profit.”
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Tortolani said the company is currently in the process of expanding into Connecticut, and Massachusetts, but plans to remain based in Rhode Island.
“Rhode Island has a good labor force, and the company will continue to grow from here.”
Qualified Resources Inc., a Cranston based employment agency was founded six years ago by former bank manager Emily Harrington. Today, the company now operates out of two main sites – Cranston and Pawtucket, and has increased annual sales from in 1993 to an expected $10 million this year. Harrington’s husband Tim, has taken on the role of president.
With an administrative and financial staff of 25 human resource professionals, the company has placed its 778 full- and part-time employees in industrial, clerical, administrative, and professional settings for short and long-term assignments.
Harrington, who is from the Philippines, said she started the company because she understood the availability of the large and skilled minority work-force, and the needs of those who could not find employment.
“The difference with QRI is that we know our market and we offer excellent service,” she said. “We know the dedicated, capable, enthusiastic and trained workers that are out there who we can match with our regional business. We live here and understand and support our neighbors.”
To qualify for the list, companies must be in business for five years, and demonstrate significant growth.
