Howard Medical Company in Chicago officially began in March of 1978 with an office desk next to the bed of Ross Litton and a warehouse located underneath the stairs of a one bedroom apartment on Chicago’s near north side. The delivery vehicle was a 1974 brown Chevy Caprice that held 12 cases of underpads fully loaded.

When the Chevy would break down Ross would hail a taxi on Lincoln Ave., give the driver a 20 dollar bill, 4 cases of water mats and send him on his way to the University of Chicago Medical Center. 1st month sales exceeded $134.

We moved in 1982 to 427 W Erie which at that time was an 8 story warehouse 4 blocks from Chicago’s Cabrini Greens where we rented the foyer for $100/month.

In 1989 we moved to our location on Elston Ave once rumored to be Al Capone’s garage.

In January of 2016 – Mark Litton succeeded his father as owner and president of Howard Medical. In 2017 we moved to our current location in Old Irving Park.

Since 2016 we have redoubled our efforts to:

1) Provide the best customer service in Chicago.
2) Present alternate products that allow our customers the opportunity to save money.
3) Make timely deliveries.
4) Try to make a profit.

The origins of the name Howard Medical are steeped in mystery and a deeply guarded company secret, that I will reveal in depth to anyone e-mailing me with an order for underpads.

Ross and Mark Litton
Howard Medical Company in Chicago

Mission:

Vision:

Values:

Annette LaBrie – Lab Manager at Orthopaedic Learning Center – client since 1994
“We enjoy working with Howard Medical because they are very professional people to work with. They are very good with coordinating orders for each course and even getting last minute orders to us on the same day.”

Ro Simon – Senior Coordinator, Surgical Skills at AAOS – client since 1994

“We do business with Howard Medical because they offer the best prices and in most cases, are able to deliver my supplies the next day.  Since they are a distributor, I have access to several brands of supplies.  Mark and his staff always find the best pricing and are willing to work within my budget.  If they do not have the item you need, they will work tirelessly to find it for you.

Caroline A. Moody

Great quality products, reasonable prices, and magnificent customer service. They always respond immediately and knowledgeably to any of our questions. Often, the owner has hand delivered items & gone out of his way to research the products our business specifically needs. I’ve worked with Howard Medical for years and will happily continue.

Molly Bennett

Howard Medical always goes above and beyond for their clients! All the staff member are so sweet too- to be quite honest even if I found better pricing on products (I have yet to find anyone with lower costs!) Id stick with these guys for their customer service. The delivery and ordering process times are so fast too…Im happy give them my business!