Jerry Smith, Sr. began selling floor coverings to hospitals as an importer and sales agent. At that time health care professionals used metal spring clamps to hold patient and resident records. As the volume of paperwork in each chart grew, metal spring clamps became harder to use because the pages fell out easily.

A gentleman named Bernie Black developed the first Ringbinder Chart holder in Chicago and hired Jerry Smith, Sr. to sell it for him as a manufacturer’s agent.

Sales of the Ringbinder chartholders were growing exponentially as health care professionals quickly recognized their value.

Bernie Black passed away and the operations of his company ceased for a full year.

During that year Jerry Smith, Sr. and his two sons, Jerry Smith, Jr. and Larry Smith negotiated the purchase of Bernie’s operation and moved it to the West coast.

The Smith team formed First Hospital Products, Inc. (FIRST) and the commitment to provide new patient charting solutions to health care professionals continued.

In the spring, the torch was officially passed to the family’s third generation with the sale of First Healthcare Products to Larry’s son, Paul Smith.

The challenge for Paul Smith and FIRST was to chart a course through the immense changes coming to record keeping in health care.

With 40 years experience listening to health care professionals and going the extra mile to find, customize or invent the products necessary to provide more efficient solutions to record keeping problems, FIRST offers tremendous experience and understanding of the essential record keeping process.

Since 2000, FIRST has added hundreds of new products to its catalog. The company’s goal is not to sell more products, but to build a more comprehensive set of tools to work with to provide healthcare professionals with the solutions they need now.
FIRST offers valuable solutions that:

• improve patient outcomes through more efficient and accurate communication
• improve coding efficiency and accuracy
• improve HIPAA compliance
• improve training efficiency for new staff
• increase purchasing standardization
• ease and improve EMR transitions
  

In the coming years,
First Healthcare will remain true to its roots by
“Building and Maintaining strong, lasting relationships with Healthcare Professionals and continue our journey to become “The Leading Supplier of Specialty Record Keeping Solutions to Healthcare Professionals.”

Thank you for your interest in FIRST!