Let’s get one thing straight: Bloom Health Partners Inc (CSE:BLMH, OTCQB:BLMHF) is not a “pandemic” company.
Yes, it may have debuted onto the markets in the midst of one of the defining health crisis of our lifetimes, but Bloom is more than just a testing firm with some labs. It combines a digital platform with a clinical business with a unique capability to layer different kinds of care together.
Bloom offers a system for businesses and organizations to develop strategies to manage health and safety through an integrated health-tech platform that securely manages data while delivering comprehensive workplace health and safety outcomes.
The firm expects to report strong growth in revenue and positive underlying earnings from its operations in fiscal 2022 as they continue to gain momentum, aiming for revenue of C$25 million to C$28 million from continued business with new and existing clients and markets.
Since its rebrand from Maitri Health to Bloom, the company has opened a new facility in Dallas, expanded lab capacity in Atlanta to meet demand from clients in the region, and opened a new laboratory in New Jersey to serve a growing customer base in New York, New Jersey and the surrounding region.
In November 2021, Bloom announced a state contract for schools across the state of Alabama. That was followed in January 2022 with a contract for testing at schools across the state of Texas. Bloom also continues to test for major film and television productions in the New York area, Atlanta and Dallas.
Additionally, it is providing a cloud software platform to all current clients to manage and track health services and is bringing new types of health services to market as it expands its client base and services.
CEO Andrew Morton has helmed the company amidst a uniquely challenging period.
In an interview with Proactive, Morton shared his insights into how businesses and schools can adapt to the new normal, and what – if any – lessons we’ve learned from the pandemic.
Proactive: Bloom Health Partners burst onto the scene in the midst of the global pandemic. How has that played a role in your strategy?
Andrew Morton: Bloom was born during the pandemic, but we're not a pandemic-focused company. What the pandemic did was help us to identify gaps in healthcare that needed to be filled. The bigger problem is the way that care is administered. Our strategy is to help companies and organizations longer-term to use health to retain and attract employees. This also enables better health outcomes for our client’s employees and better access to health in general.
Bloom's goal with our Operational Health focus is to provide a reliable business continuity plan for organzations through health. Organizations are telling us that health will be a key a component of a company’s operations, post-pandemic for years to come. Between trying to retain an aging workforce and attracting younger ones, health seems to be the number one thing on everybody’s mind.
What kind of tools are at our disposal to help navigate the challenges of getting back to “normal life” like offices and schools?
Near-term, we need to get serious about using testing to get organizations into a post-pandemic world. Our clients are looking to us to help them with that. As this evolves we’re taking the best practices we’ve established to other kinds of healthcare services. The biggest mistake that anyone can make is to keep throwing volume at a problem without a plan. Testing is really important, but if you’re not tracking the tests then you can’t plan around trends and patterns. If anything, Omicron showed us how quickly a wave can hit.
Our differentiator is the digital approach to be able to help organizations plan around events, the work day or the work week, or even shift work. For example, a film production needs to go beyond just testing for cast and crew – it extends to general health services. There are union requirements that need to be balanced with studio requirements to allow the production to continue. One studio head told me that a shutdown can cost anywhere from $300,000 per day up to $3 million per day, which is a tremendous expense. We can avoid that with planning. We’re able to bring the testing to them, which keeps things operating, and deliver other kinds of digital tools so that they can plan around the results and look at general trends. These same principals from Bloom apply for our clients’ ongoing employee health conditions such as diabetes or mental health long after this pandemic is over.
Bloom works in several K-12 schools across the southern US. How do you control a pandemic situation in schools where you're dealing with kids as opposed to adults?
For schools, we’re particularly mindful of the sensitivities involved. We have to have a well orchestrated, large-scale deployment plan – we have a head nurse that helps to make sure there are protocols in place with ongoing quality control. The clinical component has to be there, but we want to make sure that kids are comfortable with the experience. We don’t want them to equate getting a weekly test with going to the dentist—no offense to dentists of course. So to make it a pleasant experience, there are little prizes involved, which do make a difference.
The bigger component is working at the state level with the organizations that have contracted us so they can see where and when we’ve tested. All of that data goes back to the local CDC of each state, which will have dashboard views of what the testing program looks like so that they can understand trends and patterns. That enables them to pinpoint the trouble spots in their state. In these rural communities, many of these schools offer the primary lunch meal for their students, so you can imagine the state’s absolute goal is to keep those schools open.
Are there any lessons that we’ve learned from this pandemic that can help us effectively manage any future pandemics?
I think these measures have to stay to avoid problems with a future pandemic. There is most likely going to be another one within the next decade, or so say epidemiologists. Bloom is not a ‘pandemic company,’ we’re an operational health company, but if we can provide measures like software and good clinical service in order to be prepared, maybe we won’t need to have a shutdown if another one comes along.
What does this all mean for Bloom and your business going forward?
The pandemic will hopefully wane, however, I feel we’ll be testing for our clients for a long time but that’s evolving as a component of our overall operational health services. We’re on a fast track to being a pure occupational health business where we continue to bring innovative health services for our client’s employees.
You’ll see us partner with more groups in the future. What we bring to the table is the intelligence for delivery – that’s where Bloom has its place in the ecosystem. We’re not competing with hospitals; we’re an extension of care for our clients. If you look at what our clients want to do, it’s the same thing across the board: risk management, keeping their doors open, business continuity, and really starting to get serious about employee health as part of their operations.
Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas