Qualified Advice

"Even doctors sometimes compare apples and oranges" Stethoscopes, thermometers, blood pressure monitors. Wake Anni Tolstrup-Christensen up in the middle of the night, and you will get an answer. The owner of STETOSKOP.DK and Seagull Healthcare knows her products inside and out. A thermometer is not just a thermometer. And a body temperature is not just a body temperature. It is individual and can vary greatly. If we were to crown a champion of thermometers in the kingdom, her name could very well be Anni, and she would be a business owner. The woman with the dark and gray curls holds her gaze steady. Now, years of experience are speaking. "Just call me 'Denmark's champion in thermometers'. Thermometers have become a life's work for me. And I don't think there is anyone in Denmark who knows more about stethoscopes than I do," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen. For the owner of Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare, it is not enough to just ship medical equipment from her warehouse with over 5,000 different item numbers. Anni Tolstrup-Christensen has a burning ambition that her customers make the right choice and thus end up as satisfied customers. Only in this way can she live up to the company's mission of creating the most health for the money. And that requires knowledge. Lots of knowledge. Because you can only advise customers if you know your products, is the simple philosophy. Since 2005, she has built up enormous knowledge about medical equipment. For example, a thermometer is not just a thermometer. On the shelves of Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare, you will find forehead thermometers, ear thermometers, temple thermometers, rectal thermometers, and infrared thermometers for non-contact measurement. And if you ask Anni Tolstrup-Christensen about taking a correct temperature, you need to have plenty of time, because there is no simple answer here either. If you measure a person's temperature, for example, it differs depending on where on the body you measure and which thermometer you use. "That's why it makes no sense when an out-of-hours doctor simply asks, 'what is the temperature?'," she says.

Can lead to errors

If, according to Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, you need to know your temperature precisely, it is important to determine where on the body the temperature was measured—and which type of thermometer was used. But perhaps most importantly, you must know the individual's normal temperature. ‍ Thinking that everyone walks around with a normal temperature of 37 degrees can lead to false conclusions. "Even doctors sometimes compare apples and oranges when it comes to temperatures. A veterinarian once told me that it is common to know the normal temperature of your horse—and many people don't even know their own normal temperature. That is paradoxical," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, and continues: "It has actually become a bit of a personal mission for me to educate everyone on how to measure a correct temperature when you are sick, but just as importantly, when you are healthy." Even though the product portfolio at Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare has grown—and continues to grow—over the years, it does not make the owner lower her requirements for knowing what she sells. Of course, she cannot know everything. She has a special interest in stethoscopes, thermometers, and blood pressure monitors in particular. ‍ "It is our mission that customers get exactly the product they need. That is very close to my heart. Yes, I am a merchant with a bottom line, but I also want to sell the right product to the right customer," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen.

A good day for the merchant

Find a merchant who doesn't love it when goods fly off the shelves and money rolls in the opposite direction, and you will be looking for a long time. You will also come up empty-handed with Anni Tolstrup-Christensen. "It's great on those days when we just sell and sell. That's why we're here, after all. On those days, we smile a little wider," says the owner of Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare. It was the same back in 1970s Herning, where 13-year-old Anni Tolstrup stood behind the counter in her family's hardware store. Here, an enterprising father ran the show. "My father always told us kids: 'Goods sell goods—so get something on the shelves'." There is a long way from pots and pans in Herning to the office landscape in Slagelse, where Anni Tolstrup-Christensen and her employees operate today. Customers in 2020 are met digitally or over the phone. It's in and out of the webshop all the time. The orders ultimately end up with the staff at the warehouse in Skælskør, 20 km away. The sun is shining this Tuesday morning in June, and sales are already in full swing at the screens. Even though Anni Tolstrup-Christensen is the owner of the company, she sits at a computer herself, ready to provide answers, because she "wants to be close to her customers." The conversations can range from very knowledgeable customers like general practitioners and professional buyers to private customers who are not used to using medical equipment. "For example, I've had an elderly man on the line. He couldn't switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit. It was just a button he had to move, but we simply couldn't explain it to him. So we had to have it returned and exchanged for Celsius. Yes, the encounters with customers can vary a lot here. But there must be room for everyone," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen with a smile.

Also about advice

Seeing the shopping carts fill up in the webshop is not enough for her. It is also important that every customer leaves the store—whether by phone or in the webshop—with the memory of having been well treated. "A good day for me is if I solve something for a customer. It could be someone missing a spare part or someone looking for a specific product we don't already have on the shelves. It's not just the sale that makes me happy; it's to a large extent the advisory part as well," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, who, like a true merchant at heart, readily admits that the bottom line means a lot. But the buyer must also be happy and satisfied, which is why quality and advice are a crucial part of a good business. In that light, too many bad deals are being made in the Danish healthcare system, according to Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, and it irritates her. Because the business owner from Slagelse also worries about our collective money. Not least about whether it is being spent sensibly. "I have seen a medical clinic with a cheap scale from a supermarket and expensive lamps dangling from the ceiling. It makes no sense to spend money like that," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen. She shares the desire for a good and well-functioning healthcare system with the vast majority of Danes, and the debate about how we spend money is a major part of the public discourse. In 2017, according to Statistics Denmark, we spent DKK 182 billion on public healthcare. Or, put in another, more down-to-earth way: every time you pay DKK 1,000 in taxes, DKK 164 goes to the healthcare system. And it isn't getting any smaller. Since the year 2000, healthcare expenditures have risen significantly more than other expenses in the national household budget. Anni Tolstrup-Christensen has seen with her own professional eyes how money is spent with too little thought—especially when it comes to quality and price. "That is something I see immediately—for example, when they use cheap, poor-quality blood pressure monitors in hospitals—and it hurts to see. It ultimately costs society money when new equipment has to be purchased too often, or when diagnoses are based on incorrect measurements," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, adding: "If we don't spend money on proper quality, Danes won't get enough health for their money. It's as simple as that."

Sales and advice go hand in hand

Professional advice is a core value at the companies Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare, which sell medical equipment to general practitioners, hospitals, pharmacies, and private individuals, among others. And advice is precisely what is essential if we are to solve the challenge of quality—or the lack thereof—in the Danish healthcare system. On one hand, correct advice leads to fewer errors in patient treatment; on the other, quality at the right price ultimately means saved money or a better bottom line, if you will. "Isn't this just about you wanting to sell more?" "No. I do want to sell more, but it must go hand in hand with satisfied customers who are happy with their purchase and the quality of the product. Many of the stethoscopes purchased in the public sector, for example, are of such poor quality that it is worrying in my view. It is our collective money, and it is really frustrating if our medical equipment is not of proper quality. That there is only short-term thinking. It just doesn't make sense to me. Neither as someone who sells medical equipment, nor as a taxpayer and citizen in Denmark," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen.