\u00a0In order to respond to the changing conditions of modern times, a business needs several things \u2013 including agility.<\/p>\nToday we\u2019ll meet a company that has demonstrated agility in the health care products market \u2013 even in the name itself.<\/p>\n
Agiliti is a leading provider of medical device solutions to the U.S. healthcare industry. The company recently made a significant investment in rural Kansas.<\/p>\n
Doug Williams is executive director of Grow Hays, the economic development organization in Ellis County. His organization played an instrumental role in facilitating this new investment.<\/p>\n
Back in 1988, a northwest Kansas grocery store owner named Willard Frickey attended an economic development meeting. The economic development group was looking for ideas for possible businesses.<\/p>\n
One of the ideas was a specialized wheelchair company. Frickey thought this was a good idea, but it didn’t catch on with the other people at the meeting. He decided that if he truly believed in the idea, he should try it himself. He founded a company to manufacture such wheelchairs in Oberlin and began with four employees.<\/p>\n
The company was named Wheelchairs of Kansas. In 1996, the company moved to Ellis. It later changed its name to Sizewise, expanded to other types of medical equipment, and opened a 14.9 acre manufacturing facility in Hays while continuing under the leadership of the Frickey family.<\/p>\n
Agiliti was founded in Minnesota in 1939 as an oxygen tent rental service. Through the years, that company expanded and diversified its medical product offerings. Now known as Agiliti, it acquired Sizewise in 2021 and assumed full ownership of the Hays facility in 2025.<\/p>\n
Today, Agiliti is a leading manufacturer and service provider of essential medical and surgical equipment to the U.S. healthcare industry. Its products include next-generation hospital beds, therapeutic support surfaces and mobility equipment that go to 10,000 healthcare providers nationwide.<\/p>\n
Agiliti\u2019s Hays facility features state-of-the-art manufacturing to produce the latest generation of hospital beds. The Hays campus is a main production hub for Agiliti\u2019s latest trademarked innovation called Essentia.<\/p>\n
Essentia\u00a0is described as a multi-acuity hospital bed, meaning that its versatility enables it to serve patients at various levels of medical need. It consists of a specially built bed frame designed to support a wide range of patients across different hospital settings.<\/p>\n
Essentia offers caregivers the flexibility to tailor care based on patient risk profiles and features special safety capabilities to help accelerate patient mobility and reduce risk to caregivers. These products go to customers coast-to-coast.<\/p>\n
The Hays facility employs more than 90 people. Agiliti currently employs an additional 60 team members in the nearby rural community of Ellis, population 1,958 people. Now, that\u2019s rural.<\/p>\n
The company plans to expand its local workforce over the next five years, creating new opportunities for skilled jobs, training and career advancement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgiliti\u2019s investment in Hays is a powerful affirmation of our community\u2019s skilled workforce and innovative spirit,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThis expansion not only brings new jobs and career pathways to our residents, it strengthens our position as a center for advanced healthcare manufacturing and long-term economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is more than a business transaction, it\u2019s a vote of confidence in our local team whose work is essential to the important work we do nationwide,\u201d said Agiliti CEO Tom Leonard. \u201cWe\u2019re proud to invest in a community that has long been a hub of innovation and craftsmanship in healthcare manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Frickey, former CEO of Sizewise, added: \u201cThis campus has been part of our family\u2019s story for decades, and we couldn\u2019t be prouder to see it enter a new chapter with Agiliti, Agiliti\u2019s investment in Hays is not only a boost for our local economy, it\u2019s a continuation of a legacy of innovation, care and community pride.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information, see\u00a0www.agilitihealth.com<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn order to succeed in modern times, a company must be agile to respond to changing opportunities and market demands. We commend Doug Williams of Grow Hays and all those involved with Agiliti for making a difference with innovative health care products.<\/p>\n
They will keep this business on the move in the marketplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug Williams. Photo by Becky Kiser\/Hays Post By RON WILSONK-State Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development \u00a0In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-619297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Doug](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1766589595112.jpeg\")
Doug Williams. Photo by Becky Kiser\/Hays Post<\/p>\n