Wayne Care: Passionate about quality, customers, friends

Wayne Care loved medical sales. He was particularly interested – and skillful – in physician office setup, equipment refurbishing and the physician office lab, an area that was just emerging when he began his medical career in the early 1970s. A Vietnam veteran, he published a novel in 1989 – Vietnam Spook Show – based on his experiences there. Care died in February at the age of 66.

“He was passionate about quality, believed very strongly in the value of teamwork, laughed easily,” says Lou Klug, vice president and general manager of Hopkins Medical Products, who met Care when both were at Foster Medical Supply (later purchased by General Medical, now McKesson Medical-Surgical). “He was organized and methodical.”

“His strong suit was marketing to our own sales force, and [showing] them how to sell in the physician marketplace,” says Bob Cohen, who worked with Care when both were at Healthco, but who stayed on after Foster’s acquisition of Healthco in 1980. (Cohen and other investors ultimately acquired Foster from Avon Products in 1987, then sold it to General Medical in the early 1990s.)

Vietnam
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Care enlisted in the U.S. Navy and attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., where he mastered a 37-week course in the Vietnamese language. He served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969 as a translator/analyst on flights off the coast of North Vietnam, and developed radio/telephone intercept training skills. His novel is based on these experiences.

“They would go up in a plane and intercept radio language about [enemy] troop movements,” says Care’s sister, Judy Ventrella. “They flew for hours, intercepting radio messages.”

While serving in Vietnam, Care spent much of his free time volunteering at a local orphanage, she adds. Care was so committed to the cause, he enlisted family members and friends in donating clothing to children in the orphanage.

Medical sales
Care began his career in medical sales in 1970. He worked for a number of companies the next 15 years, in a variety of capacities. For example, he worked for American Hospital Supply (now Cardinal Health), in customer service and the Tel-American computerized ordering system. He worked in customer service, purchasing and operations management for Healthco in three locations – Albany, N.Y., Reading, Pa., and Detroit, Mich. And he was a buyer at Providence Hospital for a time. In addition, he served as general manager for Bischoff’s Surgical Supply (now McKesson Medical-Surgical) in Oakland, Calif.

In 1984, he joined Foster Medical Supply as assistant operations manager. One year later, he left the company to develop Southwest Advanced Diagnostics in Texas, a distributor of physician-office-lab products. But he returned to Foster in 1986 as a primary care sales rep, developing a territory from zero to more than $1 million in two years, stressing lab diagnostic kit sales and lab equipment. From 1989 to 1994, he developed a branch for Foster in Chesapeake, Va., serving as branch manager, and later, director of marketing.

Care joined McKesson Medical Group as a sales manager, managing as many as 21 reps. Following that, he worked as vice president of sales and marketing, medical distribution, for Quality America Inc., where he assisted in a hotline for customers with questions regarding CLIA regulations. In 2003, he joined Cardinal Health as an ambulatory care sales rep in Tidewater, Va. He retired in 2007.

Customers were more than customers
“Wayne loved medical sales,” says Ventrella. “He felt he was doing a human service, that he was providing doctors with the best tools they could have to make everybody’s lives better and safer. And he bonded with people. His customers were not just customers; they became his friends. He was personable and kind, and everybody instantly read that in him.”

“Wayne’s strong point was his knowledge of the physician’s office – setting them up, refurbishing them,” says Cohen. He had a lot of influence on his fellow reps, taking it upon himself to train them on the physician market, and to develop innovative marketing programs. That said, Care was at his best as a behind-the-scenes guy, he continues. “He didn’t get up in front of the salesmen with rah-rah-rah. He taught more by example and by knowledge.”

“Wayne was liked in all departments – the warehouse and drivers, office staff and customer service, and he was respected for his performance by the other sales reps,” adds Klug. “He wanted to make a difference. I followed him in his position [at Foster], and when I had questions, I would call him. He was a guy who would coach people, as opposed to correcting them. He tried to build people up rather than tearing them down. Anybody can tear something down; it takes skill to build something.”

Connected
Care also stayed in touch with people – family, friends and co-workers – over the years, according to those who knew him. “He was the one who called and talked and made sure everyone was good,” says Ventrella.

“When Wayne and I spoke, it was always like we had talked last week,” adds Klug. Like family, he was always there.

Even his book – Vietnam Spook Show – was a way to get back in touch with his buddies from Vietnam, says Ventrella. “For many years, he didn’t talk much about Vietnam,” she says. “Writing the book was his way of getting out his emotions and feelings about it. But the thing about the book that he felt was most important was that it helped him re-connect with some of his friends from the Defense Language Institute.”

So committed was Care to the book, he quit his job and moved to Mexico City for six months, to do nothing but finish writing. “It took awhile to get published,” recalls Ventrella, because the Navy and Defense Department had to vet it prior to publication, to make sure Care didn’t reveal intelligence-gathering secrets.

Care loved to be by the water – be it in Virginia Beach, Va., or Alameda, Calif. “It was something he found great tranquility in,” says Ventrella. “When he lived in Virginia Beach, he would be at the beach often, reading a book – his two favorite things.” That said, he retired to Tennessee, to be near family.