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Jim Migliazza began his home medical equipment business in April 1997. “When I started this business, I was very passionate about accessibility, keeping people mobile,” he says. From a small office, he built the business up to 18 employees in a building on Alloy Drive.
Superior Home Health Care sells, rents, installs and services a very wide range of home medical equipment such as elevating devices (for example, stair lifts and home elevators), wheelchairs and walkers, fall prevention equipment and vehicle adaptations. They also sell a variety of health care items such as braces, incontinence supplies and bed railings; “everything to keep people mobile and safe at home,” the business owner says.
“When I started the company, the demand was there,” he says. Within several months of opening, he began working with local veterans, and the business expanded quickly.
The company services not only Thunder Bay, but regional areas such as Marathon, Geraldton and Dryden (where there is a second location.) They also service reserves across Northwest Ontario.
They can provide modifications to a home or vehicle so that people don’t need to move from their family homes. “We try to create a barrier-free environment for people within their home,” Migliazza explains.
“We are the only company in Northwestern Ontario that does home elevators,” he adds. Retrofitting a home elevator is not easy, but “I’ll make it work,” he says.
Superior Home Health Care works with residential customers, and also long-term care homes and local group homes. Customers are happy to support a locally-owned company, Migliazza says.
He believes supporting his employees and taking good care of them translates to happy and satisfied customers, and the business has many long-term employees; some have been with the company for over 20 years.
This spring, Superior Home Health Care will be working on a renovation and expansion of their location, and Migliazza is looking forward to hiring more employees, and he hopes they will be able to have an in-person grand reopening.
“To me, the exciting part of the business is seeing more and more people able to stay mobile, stay safe, and in their homes and happy. That’s very, very exciting,” he says.
