My Biz: Listening is part of the sale

When Betty Scheetz-Morris started Fittings Unlimited in 1990, she had a clear vision for what she did not want her customers to see as soon as they entered her shop.

“My wife didn't want clients coming into the store and walking by the detrimental products such as bed pans, hospital beds or the walkers that could eventually be in their life if things didn't go well for them,” recalled Kim Morris, current owner of Fittings Unlimited and Betty's husband.

Kim Morris joined his wife in the family's medical supply business when his machinist career came to an end during an industrywide downturn in the mid-1990s. He's continued to run the upscale medical supply store since his wife's death in 2007.

The store stocks nearly 500 post-mastectomy prostheses from companies such as Amoena, ABC and TruLife. It also carries swimsuits, wigs and turbans, hosiery, boutique-category jewelry and daywear, as well as clothing and supplies for the nursing profession.

Fittings Unlimited expanded its offerings when it purchased the Nurses' Station next door in 2000.

“Client-wise, including the Nurses' Station,” Morris said, “we have around 18,000 clients in our database right now.”

In addition to mastectomy products and nursing clothing, the store stocks a large selection of compression hosiery along with pneumatic compression pumps designed to help increase circulation while easing the edema (swelling) up and out through the kidneys.

“We want people to have a good experience when they come in to get fit for a prosthesis and compression hosiery,” he said. “Sometimes women get swelling in the arm, too, after they've had a mastectomy, and we have to deal with that as well.”

Fittings Unlimited sells an arm sleeve that helps relieve the swelling that sometimes appears in the hands and wrists after a mastectomy.

The store has three fitting rooms, and all seven employees are certified for fitting post-mastectomy prosthetics.

“The first time our customers come in, they need someone who has a good ear and is compassionate,” Morris said. “They are scared and devastated once the medical procedure is over.

“So, oftentimes that first fitting is about them talking, and us listening.”

• Owner: Kim Morris
• Company: Fittings Unlimited
• Address: 402 10th Street SE, Cedar Rapids
• Phone: (319) 362-8062
• Website: http://iowafittingsunlimited.com

Know a company or a manager that's been in business for at least a year that should be considered for “My Biz”? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova at michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net.