Commentary: Getting a Company and Community Ready for a Hurricane

By Gary Sheehan, CEO, Cape Medical Supply, written the
week after Hurricane Earl didn’t hit Cape Cod Sept. 4

Hurricane Earl turned out to be another storm that wasn’t, but
for an extended period of time last week there was a very real
threat of major damage to the region as a result of the storm. Few
people understand the very real threats these storms present more
than home respiratory care providers and their patients who rely on
supplemental oxygen to breathe at home … supplemental oxygen
which requires electricity to run and can be rendered useless in a
storm with prolonged power failures.

So last week Cape Medical Supply did what we do best, we
serviced the community.

Starting Monday afternoon [Aug. 30] we began extensive storm
preparedness operations, delivering supplemental back-up oxygen
systems to patients across the region. Tuesday’s management meeting
featured more discussion about the arrival of the storm and we
continued to provide back-up tanks to patients across the region
throughout the day. Wednesday we activated our emergency
preparedness plans and began a much more rigorous assessment of the
storm track and our preparedness plans in the event it continued to
track towards us with the intensity forecast.

By Thursday things had reached a fever pitch in the region; news
crews were arriving en masse to interview people outside the
grocery stores and do live shots from area beaches, and we managed
to contact over 300 of our patients pro-actively to ensure they
were ready for the storm and [to see] if there was anything we
could do to assist. The great majority of them were extremely
impressed with the fact that we reached out to them. Thursday and
Friday we met with critical managers to continue to assess the
situation and ensure communication was shared across the enterprise
and staff members were all well informed and would communicate the
appropriate message to customers and referral sources. Safety and
security of staff members is of paramount importance during any
sort of emergency situation; being well prepared heading into the
event ensured we would not be called on in the midst of the event
to provide services and equipment necessary to the well-being of
our patients.

By midday Friday it was fairly apparent that the storm would not
have the feared impact in the region. We were very happy for our
patients and the regional economy, but also well assured that our
advance preparations had allowed us a great deal of confidence with
respect to our ability to address what could have been a
challenging situation for our customers and our company.

Companies like ours, across the United States, fill a critical
role during emergencies, natural and otherwise. There is little
recognition from the payer community about the work we do to ensure
these patients do not become a public or first responder’s
responsibility. We work very hard to make sure they are safe and
prepared well in advance of any forecasted event.

But, for all the tanks we delivered last week, all the extra
time we spent triaging the situation, all the costs we incurred to
make sure these patients would not become a burden on emergency
rooms and other public safety officials, we will be reimbursed $0.
There is no code for that service, we don’t bill for it, it’s just
a part of what we do and what we’re expected to do.

We accept that as we understand the role we play within the
health care continuum. What we do not accept is continued ignorance
on behalf of policymakers for the great work our people do in the
community to make sure things run smoothly during a situation like
this. We do not accept the blanket statements and implications from
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that the
program is full of fraudsters, to the extent that [CMS] can only
blame themselves. After all, a provider cannot grant themselves the
right to bill Medicare for services, that’s CMS’ job. And they have
failed mightily at policing the program, failed taxpayers in
safeguarding their investment, and they have covered up this
failure by deflecting blame and working exceedingly hard to brand
an industry as criminal or make some bad apples indicative of an
entire group of hard-working service providers who go to great
lengths to save the health care system millions, if not billions,
of dollars by keeping patients at home.

There are a lot of things companies like ours do to add
tremendous value to the health care system. The preparation for
Hurricane Earl is but one obvious example. I was exceptionally
proud of the work our team performed and the professionalism they
displayed in the build-up to what turned out to be a non-event. But
either way, our team and our patients could rest easily, because
Cape Medical Supply performed the advance planning and did the hard
work necessary to put ourselves and our patients at ease, no matter
where the storm tracked.

Gary Sheehan is CEO of 33-year-old Cape Medical Supply,
which has three locations in the Cape Cod area in Sandwich,
Falmouth and Hyannis, Mass. The company recently opened a fourth
branch in Canton, Mass., to serve customers in the Boston area.
Charting 33 percent revenue growth from $4.1 million in 2006 to
$5.3 million in 2009, Cape Medical came in at No. 4179 on this
year’s Inc. 5000 list.