Spa Canada Magazine

The “Miracle Man” of CSI

He has been called a “miracle man” by the same hospital officials who once doubted he could live up to claims he was making.

The hospitals had good reason. They had been told by the manufacturers of surgical instruments it was impossible to restore them. But Zoltan Gere, president of New Brunswick-based Canadian Surgical Instruments (CSI) Canada Inc., knew better. He had been doing it for more than a decade in his native Germany and was out to prove it.



In the beginning, it was a tough sell. The hospitals would ask him, “Can you fix these instruments even if the companies who sold them said they could not be repaired?”

Zoltan suggested the only way to really know was to try him out. But the hospitals still had doubts and even asked: “How do we know you’re not replacing our old instruments with new ones?”“I suggested they put a mark on their old instruments. This way they would be able to identify their instruments when they got them back. At that point, they would try me out. That was all they needed.”

So, after months of visiting numerous hospital officials in the Maritime region, and showing what he could do, the same hospitals started calling him the miracle man - because he really was able to do what he claimed.

After that, he added, “they told me I wasn’t like the typical sales rep they usually see. You actually know what you’re doing. The instruments you repaired for us actually work better than the new ones.”

One of his biggest customers is a large Medical Center in the New England State of Maine. “After working two years for the Center, they told me I was spoiling some of their surgeons. Some of them had actually refused to use the new instruments until they are first sharpened by us.” In fact, one orthopedic surgeon at the hospital will only operate with Zoltan’s rebuilt surgical instruments.

His clients now include hospitals and medical centres in all four Atlantic Provinces, Ontario and Quebec as well as Canada’s Western provinces. And CSI has saved them millions of dollars in surgical instrument replacement costs.

How much does CSI claim to save its clients? About 65% of the cost of replacing old surgical instruments with news ones. If they adopt CSI’s Maintenance Program the savings are even greater: refurbishing the instruments every six months to new condition costs 25% of the cost of a brand-new instrument; servicing them every three months costs 18%. CSI also offers a Major Upgrade Program that enhances the instruments’ quality to a better than at the time of its original purchase.



Zoltan compares the upgrading process to buying a new car that has its hood welded down, making it impossible to service the engine. It led him to create his own technique on how to rebuild every instrument in the laparoscopic world. In the process he created a way to rebuild the instrument into something far superior. “It’s like buying a low-priced car and turning it into a top-of-the-line model at 60% of the cost.”

How many times can a surgical instrument be refurbished? “That depends on how well they’re kept and treated by the doctors who use them”, said Zoltan.

Generally, four to six times on “used” instruments; and between 12-18 times on “new” instruments – if CSI services them.

“There are 10,000 different handheld surgical instrument models – all the way up to high-end instruments used for reconstructive micro surgery. We do them all. In fact, every single tool a doctor needs to work on a human body for endoscopic, orthopedic, urological, gynecological and neurosurgical procedures.”

CSI’s operations are focused on three strategic areas – quality, cost-effective pricing and competitive turn-around time – 7-10 working days in the case of typical repairs; 11-14 days for major repairs; and 3-5 days for emergency/rush repairs. CSI promises next-day delivery to New Brunswick customers and second day delivery in the case of U.S. orders.

CSI Canada, which operates a 4,000-square-foot facility in the village of Keswick Ridge on the fringes of Fredericton, is one of the remarkable success stories in Atlantic Canada from the moment it opened its doors in 1996. Much of its success is due to dogged determination, a “never- say-die” attitude, an enormous pride in his work and an insistence on quality in everything he does.

All the big grinding and welding is done on the first floor of his two-storey steel frame factory. His offices are located on the second floor, where final fine-tuning is carried out. In addition to himself as president, CSI Canada has four other employees – his wife, his two sons and one non-family employee.

He moved to Canada at the instigation of the New Brunswick government, which had identified a demand for surgical instrument repair in the province’s health care system. A marketing study was done in 1996 by CSI in collaboration with the government. It showed a big demand for surgical instrument care; but this demand was tempered by a throwaway mentality that extended to the province’s hospitals, which did not refurnish their surgical instruments but threw them away and bought new ones. “That was then. Now, with tight hospital budgets, all that has changed.” His customers have recognized the value of CSI in lowering their costs for maintaining their existing instrument inventory, and therefore their entire operating budget.


Besides offering its clients impressive cost-savings opportunities, CSI also provides training to service staff in hospitals on how to sterilize the instruments more effectively. He says that most of the instruments on the market today cannot be taken apart suitably for proper cleaning. His clients have come to really appreciate this service. CSI’s full service menu includes: surgical instrument design/development; surgical instrument upgrades and enhancements; instrument restoration; an inventory program, consisting of an inventory audit, initial instrument restoration, scheduled maintenance and manufacturer’s warranty; and consulting and training services.

Zoltan, now 49, blessed with an amazing memory for facts and dates, and with over 30 years of professional experience in the field, credits his success to a walk-the-talk philosophy and a belief system that incorporates a strong work ethic, a demanding insistence on quality and, above all, honesty in every area of his life. It colors everything he does.

“In business you can’t be honest enough. It takes months to get a client and only a second to lose one.” After 30 years practising his craft, his basic philosophy has never changed: “Work hard, never give up, produce quality, and never cut corners.”

Contact Info:
CSI Canada Inc.
688 Tripp Settlement Rd.
Keswick Ridge, NB
E6L 1X2
Canada
Phone: (877) 274-2462
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it