Care without costly hospital visit

(Corrected, Nov. 13)
At the very least, Bernard Lambrese says, his company is doing its small part to ease the nation’s skyrocketing health care costs.
Lambrese is the CEO of Infusion Resource Inc., an outpatient infusion-therapy service based in East Providence that the company says offers a cheaper but safe alternative to having patients visit the hospital to insert intravenous tubes to treat everything from Lyme disease to cancer.
Instead, patients can turn to Infusion Resource to receive IV lines, including specialized tubing called peripherally inserted central catheters – or PICCs – that can be fed through veins. They can receive treatment at Infusion Resource’s infusion suite, too.
“We help the patient avoid the hospital and save the health care system a great deal of money,” Lambrese says.
But, he adds, there’s much more to the year-old business, including a pharmacy and a sterile room at its East Providence offices where pharmacists can mix special compounds for prescriptions and chemotherapy for cancer treatments.
And there’s a separate division called Pharma Resource that conducts clinical trials on intravenous treatments for such things as lung cancer and diabetes. In addition to about eight studies enrolling now, there are about 50 others in the pipeline, with pharmaceutical companies ranging from Pfizer to Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Lambrese says.
The business model so far has proved successful for Lambrese and his three partners, Joseph Haley, chief financial officer; Marian Marcoccio, vice president of operations; and Kelly Lambrese, vice president of clinical research and Bernard’s wife.
Bernard Lambrese says Infusion Resource has experienced double-digit growth every month since it first started treating patients in October 2008. While he allows that the venture has exceeded revenue projections, Lambrese declines to say whether it has reached profitability yet.
Despite the encouraging sales growth, Lambrese isn’t concerned that others will follow because the barriers to entry are tall. “It’s very capital intensive,” he says.
Infusion Resource might be relatively new to the local health care arena, but Lambrese and his partners aren’t.
Lambrese launched EvoCare and EvoCare Home Health Services – an infusion therapy and home health-services company – in 1994, using his extensive sales and management experience in the home health care industry. His wife, Haley and Marcoccio had key roles in that venture, too, until the company was sold in 1998. Shortly after that, Lambrese started Respiratory Solutions Inc., which sold home respiratory equipment and medications. That business was sold in 2004.
Lambrese also co-founded Angel Health Strategies, an investment group focused on innovative life science and health care companies. He has invested in ER Card, an electronic personal health record program; and Albion Special Care, an assisted living center for dementia and Alzheimer patients; and Diagnostic Information System Co., which developed technology to streamline reporting, viewing and sharing medical test results.
Lambrese says the field of outpatient infusion therapy is competitive. But last year, he and his partners say they saw an opportunity.
“We felt there was a need for a … local, innovative infusion-therapy facility [that is also an] accredited ambulatory-care facility,” Lambrese says.
While he emphasizes the local connection – many competing facilities are owned by out-of-state entities – and the facility’s accreditation from the Accrediation Commission for Health Care Inc., Lambrese says the company’s nursing staff is also a differentiator.
Not only are the nurses qualified to insert PICCs at the East Providence facility, they can also administer the first course of medication there, too. And the staff teaches patients how to administer meds themselves, and conducts follow-up home visits.
Since opening last year, Infusion Resource’s sales staff has reached out to hospitals, case managers, nurses and doctors to let them know that the company can provide many of the infusion services that were once left to the hospitals.
“[Infusion Resource] being local is important to a lot of people,” Lambrese says. “Most physicians are small-businesspeople, too.”
On a recent day at the facility at 2 Hemingway Drive, several patients were receiving an IV infusion while sitting in cushy leather chairs in the infusion suite. Many patients also receive portable infusion pumps to take home.
“We’re trying to provide innovative technology that’s a little more patient friendly,” Lambrese says. •

COMPANY PROFILE
Infusion Resource Inc.
OWNERS: Bernard F. Lambrese, CEO; Joseph F. Haley, chief financial officer;
Kelly Lambrese, vice president of clinical research; Marian Marcoccio, vice president of operations
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Outpatient
infusion-therapy service
LOCATION: 2 Hemingway Drive,
East Providence
EMPLOYEES: 25
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2008
ANNUAL SALES: WND

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An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Bernard Lambrese founded Angel Health Strategies; he was a co-founder.