Fall Prevention

Best Bath Systems

Greg Wells, Director of Marketing & Communications
www.bestbath.com

Please briefly describe your company’s product line.
WELLS: Bestbath manufactures bathing products. We offer products that are designed to be useful, beautiful and easily modified as individuals’ needs and abilities change. The walls of our showers are wood backed, providing extra strength and durability allowing grab bars and seats to be installed wherever the user needs them, regardless of their height or ability. This helps ensure their safety and security.

How are you seeing the fall prevention market change?
WELLS: As the need for bathroom safety and fall prevention grows due to the aging of America, the demand is changing. Users do not want sterile, cold, institutional solutions. People want beautiful and stylish solutions that fit their decor. At Bestbath, we are developing and offering products, staying ahead of fashion trends, providing bathing products that are beautiful, functional and durable so customers do not have to settle to
be safe.

Motivo

Jeremy Knopow, Co-Founder
www.motivolife.com

What do you offer to users in the fall prevention market?
KNOPOW: The Motivo Tour enables people to walk upright. Walking upright, inside the Tour, versus behind it and hunched over, vastly improves a user’s center of gravity. Besides the ergonomic innovations, adding conveniently located storage and a flip out tray allows users to easily carry items while maintaining a secure grip with both hands on the Tour at all times.

How is the fall prevention industry changing?
KNOPOW: The 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day want better and nicer solutions. No longer is just designing a functional solution to a medical problem adequate. Consumers today demand a much more holistic approach and user-centered design. Motivo is seeking to provide those solutions by leveraging our inherent product design DNA and continually going back to the user as our original inspiration point and asking what can be improved.

Carex Health Brands

Laura Casto, Vice President, Communications
www.carex.org

What products does your company provide to the fall prevention market?
CASTO: Our wide range of fall prevention products consist of bed rails, grab bars for the shower, bath and toilet, bath mats, shower seats, elevated toilet seats, lift chairs, canes, walkers and even cushions to facilitate entering and exiting vehicles.

What developments have you noticed in the fall prevention industry?
CASTO: We are seeing the release of electronic fall prevention products that make even the simplest tasks easier. For instance, our Uplift Premium Power Seat facilitates standing at the push of a button by gently lifting the user up without pushing them forward.

Tell us one way you are planning to stay competitive in the coming year.
CASTO: We have recently released our AccuRelief Ultimate Foot Circulator, which uses TENS Therapy to relax stiff muscles, reduce swelling in feet and increase blood circulation in healthy muscles—all of which are common contributors to in-home falls. This product, paired with a healthy exercise routine, can help increase mobility and in turn, reduce falls.

How do your fall prevention products help HME and other providers serve their clients?
CASTO: This category is predominantly shopped by caregivers purchasing for their loved ones. By using descriptive packaging that clearly demonstrates the product in use with at-shelf educational resources, Carex can ensure customers are choosing the right product the first time.

MHI

Rich Lowenstein, VP of Sales
www.safe-er-grip.com

What does your company provide for fall prevention consumers?
LOWENSTEIN: Our Safe-er Grip Suction Cup balance assist bars feature suction cup technology that allows the consumer to place the bar in any position in the bath area. The addition of our Safe-er Grip accessories allows the freedom of bath aids to be placed in any area of the bathing environment, thereby making simple bath activities easier to achieve. We have also recently introduced a permanent mount grab bar.

What’s one way your company expects to stay competitive in 2017?
LOWENSTEIN: Our new Bath Safety Bar is engineered to meet and surpass ADA Standards. It has shown through testing that it matches all performance criteria of a standard 18-inch bar including a weight-bearing load of 500 pounds. The new contour shape of our Bath Safety Bar as opposed to straight traditional bars offers stylization not seen in current products. The new texture and color enhances bathroom decor, eliminating the clinical/hospital look of current traditional bars.

Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare

Derek Lampert, VP of Homecare Sales
www.drivemedical.com

Tell us about what your company’s fall prevention offerings.
LAMPERT: It’s common to incorrectly pigeonhole fall prevention exclusively into bathroom safety aids. True fall prevention is about education and covers many aspects of patient equipment safety, all the way down to the smallest accessory such as a cup holder for a walker. Drive DeVilbiss looks at fall prevention as our duty in bath safety, bed and wheelchair transfer aids, ambulatory devices and other categories where there is an opportunity to educate consumers about proactive safety and fall prevention.

How does your company help HME and other providers face their challenges?
LAMPERT: Drive DeVilbiss has recognized that we must help our provider network do more education in the home before they will be able to properly cater to the equipment needs and wants of the consumers they are delivering to. The backbone to this is our Tech to Teach program, where we help our providers bring retail into the home through consumer-focused education using their delivery technicians. As we all know, prevention is the best medicine. The challenge is consumers are not aware of what options are available to them prior to having an incident. For example, having a bath lift or a properly fit transfer bench will allow a consumer to bathe safely and independently, and greatly reduce the risk of a fall in the bathroom.