Curbell Medical Products, Inc.
Curbell Medical is about communication. From phone conversations to wireless signals, our company makes the most of every interaction. Ever since we started assembling healthcare grade TV controls in the 1960s, we have evolved to provide innovative healthcare integration solutions that make hospitals more efficient and patients more satisfied. We’ve built on that early success, continuing to partner with the leading companies in the nurse call, television, bed and patient monitoring industries.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Medical Equipment
- Market Focus:
- Globally (various continents)
About Us
Collaboration
Innovation can’t happen in a vacuum. Which is why we especially value our development partnerships – through close collaboration with systems manufacturers, we ensure cutting edge connectivity technology and seamless integration. These close partnerships ensure that Curbell keeps pace with ever-changing technologies and delivers effective, reliable integration. Because our finger is on the pulse of what our partners need, we can constantly innovate new ways to help them.
We design, develop, and manufacture a broad range of industry-leading product lines for all our partners. So whether it’s a critical nurse call signal, a preventative fall management system or a high-quality ECG lead wire, Curbell has revolutionized the way patients, nurses and technologies communicate with one another.
Our History
FROM PASTA TO PLASTIC TO PILLOW SPEAKERS
Curbell’s history began in the 1940s in the industrial heart of Buffalo, N.Y. and has since been marked by an ability to identify new opportunities and to adapt to a changing marketplace and customer needs. That flexibility, along with an entrepreneurial spirit, has led our company and its two subsidiaries, Curbell Plastics, Inc. and Curbell Medical Products, Inc. to continue to grow and thrive.
Brothers Edmond and Leonard Leone founded the original company as a macaroni producer that included a small machine shop. Local aerospace manufacturers approached the company to fabricate parts for their businesses, which led to experimenting with a relatively new material called “plastic.” As their expertise in plastic fabrication grew, so did their customer base and a new company, Curbell Machine Company, was formed, taking its name from a combination of its two original customers: Curtiss Wright and Bell Aircraft.
After World War II, chemical manufacturers expanded their experimentation with plastics and introduced new polymer materials into the industrial marketplace. Curbell was approached to become a distributor for the new materials and quickly grew across New York State. Curbell continued to expand, and by the late 1970s, the company embarked on a major effort to create a national distribution network.
Curbell Plastics is now one of the nation’s premier suppliers of plastic sheet, rod, tube, and related materials, supplying hundreds of plastics products from over 15 sales and distribution centers strategically located throughout the United States.
Curbell Medical (formerly Curbell Electronics) grew out of the company’s Plastics business when Curbell began to fabricate parts for General Electric’s line of wired remote control units for its hospital televisions, commonly known as “pillow speakers.” When Curbell began fabricating as well assembling the units, a new company was born. The company leveraged its assembly expertise to build relationships with other television manufacturers, including Zenith, RCA, and Admiral, until Curbell became the industry’s largest supplier of replacement pillow speaker units.
Today, Curbell Medical is the largest manufacturer of signaling devices and related accessories for hospitals and nursing homes throughout the United States. In addition to our own products, Curbell Medical manufactures a variety of privately-labeled products for most of the major hospital communication system manufacturers in the country, and also distributes many other healthcare products.
Still privately held today, Curbell Inc. employs more than 450 people who embrace our pioneering spirit at our headquarters in Orchard Park, NY, and at our plastics distribution centers throughout the United States.
Quality And Regulatory Compliance
Quality is much more than an adjective used to describe our products. For us, it’s an entire system that guides the design and manufacture of those products, many of which are regulated medical devices. Our Quality and Regulatory team understands the procedures necessary for assuring compliance with all applicable industry standards so we can make sure that our patient monitoring accessories meet (and often exceed) these standards. For our customers, this diligence and assurance delivers peace of mind.
This standard specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to provide medical devices and related services that consistently meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements.
The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) is the primary source of consensus standards for the medical device industry. Their EC53 Standard covers safety and performance requirements for disposable and reusable ECG cables and lead wires.
In order to evaluate and certify products, UL uses product samples in their test processes. While UL maintains their own extensive test facilities, a select number of their customers (such as Curbell) qualify to utilize their own in-house test facilities and equipment under the supervision of UL personnel.
Specific to FDA Medical Devices, this refers to Quality System Regulation. A quality system is a necessary component of any medical device commercialization effort. For medical device manufacturers seeking regulatory clearance or approval in the US, 21 CFR Part 820 of US Code of Federal Regulations is necessary to meet quality system requirements (QSR) and bring their products to market.
C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) is a voluntary public-private sector partnership program which recognizes that US Customs and Border Protection can provide the highest level of cargo security only through close cooperation with the principle stakeholders of the international supply chain such as importers, carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers, and manufacturers.
- EU MDR (European Medical Device Regulations)
- MDR of Canada (Canadian Medical Device Regulations)
- RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) — a European directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. (i.e. Lead, Mercury, Cadmium)
- REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) — a regulation of the European Union, adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals.
Our Values
Curbell takes pride in fostering a corporate culture where people are treated with respect, are encouraged to grow, and ultimately, feel like they are growing personally and professionally.
We believe that, in order for Curbell to prosper as an organization, it is essential to live by a core set of guiding principles. As our business grows and diversifies, our core values will serve to ensure that what we stand for as an organization remains intact.
Individual departments may have unique behavior codes related to the core values, but there are three core values and related behavior codes that apply to all of Curbell:
- Integrity is choosing to act in the best interest of the company over individual needs.
- Respect is treating others in ways that inspire them.
- Learning is the continuous testing of experiences, and the transformation of those experiences into knowledge that provides competitive advantage.