Nihon Kohden is enhancing its support of customers across the United States by opening a technical support call center in Allentown, Pa. The company’s new 6,000-sq-ft facility will complement its headquarters-based technical support call center in Irvine, Calif, allowing it to provide a rapid and robust response to customers across all US time zones, especially to major institutions in and around the East Coast.

“We are always looking for ways to improve the level and quality of service and support we provide to our valued customers because we know that every minute counts when it comes to patient care,” says Dr Wilson P. Constantine, CEO of Nihon Kohden America, in a release. “While our new Allentown facility will initially serve as a second US technical support call center, increasing access to our knowledgeable support staff, we will have the ability to add other functions in the future as customer needs dictate.”

Initially, Nihon Kohden will hire 12 people to man the call center. Eventually, the facility could grow to 50 people, including technicians and nurse executives.

“The opening of our new US East Coast facility is an important milestone in Nihon Kohden’s CHANGE 2020 initiative, which calls for us to achieve top share in key international markets over the next few years,” says Fumio Suzuki, chairman and CEO, Nihon Kohden. “It is only by providing the world’s finest quality products and services to customers where they are, when they need it that we will achieve this vision.”

A ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by local community and civic leaders was held at the facility located at 1550 Pond Road in Allentown on June 9.