New owner takes over Pahrump Valley Medical Supply

After seeing an ad for a medical supply business for sale, one local businessman and his family took a shot at the new business venture, even though they had no prior experience in the industry.

Ryan Lewis, new owner of Pahrump Valley Medical Supply, not only took the business over, he added retail room, growing into the space next door, almost doubling it in size. It's been almost a month since the addition and they are still in the process of filling up the newly-acquired space.

"We are trying to expand here in order to supply more to customers here," Lewis said. "We realized that we need to fill it up, so we are still in the process of what we think a medical supply store should have. It's a daily kind of grind to order more to fill it up. But we're adding more things to it."

The business has four steady employees, including Lewis's mother, girlfriend and a former employee that was held over from the previous owner's tenure, in addition to an on-call delivery driver.

Pahrump Valley Medical Supply has everything from respirators, walking aids, braces, wheelchairs and more. They offer free delivery and are open to special orders, as long as one of their vendors carries what they're looking for. "If we don't have it, we'll try our hardest to get it for you," Lewis said.

Lewis is a big advocate of supporting local businesses and hopes to aid the town in becoming more self-reliant.

"We want to keep things local because we see the potential of Pahrump," he said. "Pahrump looks very good to me and I think people are getting the mentality of let's keep it within Pahrump. We have enough facilities to not have to go to Vegas."

Not having any previous history working in the medical supply industry before, Lewis took on the venture with open arms.

"We kind of jumped in full-on with it," he said. "We've been educating ourselves, even to this day. It's been a lot of work, but it's been successful and we've had good feedback from the community so far."

Lewis is big on interacting with his customers and he's done that on several levels so far. He explained that he is here to connect with the community.

"It's good to engage, we've been marketing toward the hospital, doctors' offices, to let them know we're here and if there is anything they want us to service, let us know."

Serving both medical offices and everyday people off the street, Lewis explained that his business is fairly even as far that goes.

"I would say it's a mixed bag," he said. "We have a lot of referrals from doctors' offices. Then we have a lot of people walking in and saying I didn't know you were here. It's a wide variety, it's not one more than another as much."

Now three months into their new ownership, Pahrump Valley Medical Supply hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 18, marking their addition to the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce.

"It's exciting for everyone that's involved. For people in the community, as new business brings energy to the community," Lewis said.

That, coupled with advertising in local media, Lewis hopes to attract more customers, especially those who might have overlooked the business before.

"We have found that marketing in the newspaper that people have come in and that they have seen the ad and that they never realized that we were here, even though they live down the street, which I find alarming being that the business has been here for about seven years before we took it over."

Although new and still finding their footing, Lewis said that there are long-term goals set for the business.

"We want to continue to grow," he said. "We would like to be able to carry the liquid oxygen. Also the sleep studies. People have to go and stay overnight (at a facility) and we want to get it where you can take it home and do it at their own house."

You can check out Pahrump Valley Medical Supply by visiting them at 1971 S. Pahrump Valley Blvd. Unit D. They are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. You can reach them by phone at 775-751-4999.

Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @MickAkers