FH Orthopedics

Fournitures Hospitalières Group

Originally, FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES was exclusively a distribution company in France for small medical equipment. The company moved into the orthopaedics sector in the 1970s and became a manufacturer in this field after a succession of acquisitions and buy-outs in 1984, 1991 and 1995 (the French companies QUARTEX, OMCI and LUER, respectively).

Since the 2000s, the FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES group has progressively focused exclusively on orthopaedics and has become, in the last few years, totally focused on orthopaedics, with a strong base in France and a worldwide network of distributors.

Of the most recent and innovative products developed by FH, there are:

Traumatology for ligament repair, the ESP range for lumbar and cervical discs, TELEGRAPH and ARROW for traumatology and shoulder reconstructions, TENOLIG for Achilles tendon repair and the entire bePOD range of products for the foot with, in particular, instruments designed for mini-invasive forefoot surgery.

Marketing

FH ORTHOPEDICS
Our commitment

Promoting both in France and abroad original solutions designed with our groups of expert surgeons.

Providing an irreproachable quality of service, a guarantee of trust and loyalty for healthcare establishments.

History

FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES was founded in 1964 by Mr André HERMANN as a company that marketed medical equipment, with initially a shop situated in Mulhouse (Alsace).

Since its creation, the company has aimed to become a privileged partner for private and public hospitals, guaranteeing them supplies of products and services of the best possible quality.


In 1977, LABORATOIRE FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES Sàrl was founded in response to legislation on the sale of sterile material, requiring the creation of a structure with the status of analytical laboratory.


On 1 April 1978, a new company, ETABLISSEMENT FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES SA, took over the lease-management of the business of S.A. FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES which, in turn, took over the name FH CONTROLE and became a holding of the new FH Group.
In the early 1980s, the FH Group decided to divide its activities over three main areas :

• Orthopaedics, which was transferred to ETABLISSEMENT FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES SA
• Operating theatre, which was transferred to LABORATOIRE FH Sàrl
• Cardiology, which was transferred to the new subsidiary, MEDI SERVICE Sàrl
  

These three areas of activity developed rapidly thanks to an active policy of research into products adapted to the requirements of practitioners and hospital establishments in the ever-evolving field of healthcare.
To complete the company’s internal growth, an external growth policy was conducted in order to progressively cover the whole of France with regards to the Operating theatre area, and to integrate manufacturing activities into the Orthopaedics area.


QUARTEX joined the Group in 1984. Quartex is a company that specialises in the processing of metals at high temperatures and the manufacture of laboratory glassware. Its acquisition allowed the FH Group to develop and manufacture its first hip and knee prostheses.
This first, positive experience came hand-in-hand with fast development, which quickly brought to light QUARTEX’s limited capacities in terms of research, development and manufacture.



In 1991, the FH Group bought OMCI S.A. in Quimper (Brittany), a company that had benefited from fast expansion thanks to good reactivity in relation to the orthopaedic surgery market. The company had at its disposal considerable industrial means.


Consequently, all the conditions for an industrial development and manufacturing policy for orthopaedics products were reunited and the FH Group could thus actively start to:

• develop new products in all fields of orthopaedic surgery;
• search for job opportunities, increased by an active export sales policy, particularly through the intermediary of foreign distributors and the creation of a marketing subsidiary for products from the Orthopaedics area in the USA.
  

In 1999, ETABLISSEMENT FOURNITURES HOSPITALIERES changed its name to FH ORTHOPEDICS and the OMCI unit in QUIMPER, became FH INDUSTRIE.


In the early 2000s, the FH Group decided to focus all its energy on developing the Orthopaedics area, by letting the other two areas of activity (Operating theatre and Cardiology) go.

FH ORTHOPEDICS – Our commitment

FH ORTHOPEDICS represents more than 45 years of work and passion, devoted to creating innovative implants, evaluation and clinical follow-up.

Our marketing and sales teams are devoted to promote, both in France and abroad, our original solutions in the field of orthopedic surgery, designed with our groups of expert surgeons and the teams from FH INDUSTRIE.

Our logistics and clinical specialist teams are the guarantee of an irreproachable quality of service, a guarantee of trust and loyalty for healthcare establishments.

FH INDUSTRIE – Our know-how

The scientific skills found at FH INDUSTRIE make the company a reference partner in the field of orthopaedic research in France.

Our Research and Development teams have been organised in such a way as to be able to design the original solutions imagined by FH ORTHOPEDICS with the groups of expert surgeons in the field of bone surgery.

Our industrial team, on the strength of its considerable experience in manufacturing orthopaedic surgery devices, is committed to providing implants and sets of instruments that respect our recognised tradition for quality, itself a guarantee of safety for our patients.

Quality for health

For more than 10 years now, FH ORTHOPEDICS has used as the basis for its policy of continuous improvement the ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 referentials. Before this, our factory, FH INDUSTRIE, developed the same Quality policy with even stronger ambitions, adding the ISO 14001 certification (the first factory certified ISO 9002 in Brittany).

On the strength of this policy, our Quality commitment is an integral aspect for every key player in the group.

Scientific environment

A top quality scientific environment

The accumulated experience of 50 years in the service of the healthcare professions has allowed us to verify that the advantages and value of a product only exist in relation to that product’s ability to satisfy a need.

Consequently, it appears essential to us that we take advantage, when putting together our product ranges, of the opinions and recommendations of those who use our products : surgeons, doctors, nurses…

The development of FH ORTHOPEDICS has been considerably enhanced by this partnership. Indeed, it has become increasingly indispensable with the emergence of new techniques.

Today, our reality is situated in the following privileged relationships, and the unique potential of the scientific progress, communication and training they represent :

>> GECO, Study group for bone surgery
>> CEAH, Andre Hermann evaluation center


In addition to the GECO and the CEAH, FH ORTHOPEDICS supports a wide range of specific training courses for operating theatre work, as well as many conferences or events that qualify for continuous medical training programmes.

Distribution

Forming long term partnerships with the best specialised distributors.

FH ORTHOPEDICS has a vast portfolio of products covering practically every field in orthopaedic surgery:

• Implants for reconstruction ;
• Implants used in traumatology ;
• Implants used in arthroscopic surgery.
  

These partnerships are the result of our more than 40-year history of continuous development carried out in collaboration with some of the greatest names in French surgery.

Throughout this history, FH ORTHOPEDICS has remained faithful to a guiding principle, that of forming distribution partnerships in every country, with specialist distributors who share the same passion for quality and service with respect to their clients.

Depending on their skills and development strategy, each partner can choose to distribute either all or part of the FH ORTHOPEDICS catalogue in their own country, thus giving them the opportunity to develop this activity from a long term perspective, with the support of a team entirely devoted to promoting exports.

This international development has always taken place within a context of mutual respect for our respective identities and products.

It is also an opportunity for foreign surgeons to make privileged, top level contacts with our French reference surgeons at the annual meetings at the GECO conference.

>> Go to Distribution page

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