Omnicell Technologies

Out of a near-tragedy, Randall A. Lipps, chairman, president and chief executive officer, built a publicly traded healthcare information technology... corporation focused on improving patient safety through more efficient healthcare delivery. Omnicell’s genesis was upon the birth in 1991 of the fifth of the Lipps’ ten children, Sarah Ann. Sarah appeared to progress normally immediately following her birth, but began to experience distress after a few days. Those days became weeks as several teams of doctors attempted to discover the source of her decline. Mother and father spent untold hours at her side in the trauma unit as doctors and nurses labored tirelessly. Eventually Sarah was diagnosed as suffering from hyaline membrane disease, which had adversely affected her breathing. Mr. Lipps, an industrial engineer with degrees from SMU and a career at American Airlines, observed how healthcare was being administered and noted how many tasks seemed inefficient or repetitive. Once his daughter was out of danger and on the road to good health, Mr. Lipps began a deeper investigation into how hospital tasks were organized. Working with several Stanford University graduate students, he developed the first prototype of a system to automate the many mundane but essential manual tasks handled by nurses. Soon thereafter, in September 1992, Mr. Lipps founded Omnicell. From Omnicell’s founding until October 2002, Mr. Lipps served as chairman of the board of directors. He assumed the additional roles of president and chief executive officer in October 2002 and has since provided the leadership for Omnicell's business expansion. Since taking over the day-to-day operations of the company, Mr. Lipps has brought in a well-known Silicon Valley management team and has focused the company’s growth on patient safety solutions. He and his wife have added five more children since the founding of Omnicell, joining Sarah and her four earlier siblings.
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