Blog

7 Months of Silence

Published on 11/25/11 10:53AM by Gary Sheehan

7 months, that’s quite a long time between posts!
We’ve had a busy 7 months at Cape Medical Supply. We’ve had an exciting 7 months at Cape Medical Supply too…sometimes the two don’t go hand in hand, in our case, fortunately, they have.
Through the spring we were going through the arduous and delic...


Helping Where We Can

Published on 04/28/11 09:26AM by Gary Sheehan I pull this directly from the monthly newsletter of the "Cape Cod COPD Support Group," a wonderful resource for those dealing with COPD on Cape Cod. It is an extremely well run group that continues to deliver a supportive environment for attendees and delivers excellent educational content, as you can see below; "Believe me - driving up to Orl...

2011 AAHomecare Washington Legislative Conference

Published on 03/24/11 04:46PM by Gary Sheehan

Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Washington DC for the 2011 AAHomecare Washington Legislative Conference, an annual event designed to help home medical equipment and respiratory care providers educate members of Congress on the important role we play in the healthcare continuum in the Unite...


"Fixing" Competitive Bidding

Published on 02/28/11 01:22PM by Gary Sheehan

Medicare’s highly touted cost savings vehicle, “Competitive” Bidding for Durable Medical Equipment and respiratory care, has been rolled out in 9 metropolitan areas across the United States. In those 9 areas Medicare beneficiaries are forced to use the lowest bidders for the products and services they require at home, to st...


Helping our Tourists Travel Easier

Published on 02/15/11 04:24PM by Gary Sheehan

A little over two months ago I wrote about how we were trying to improve the experience for tourists travelling to Cape Cod and the surrounding areas who needed medical equipment and respiratory care – and I am happy to report we have taken our first step in that effort by 2011...it's February already? Published on 02/07/11 10:39AM by Gary Sheehan

2011 is off to a roaring start…hard to believe we’re already over a month in!
We’ve been VERY busy at Cape Medical Supply…here are a few of the things we’ve been up to:
- Our entire team is working extraordinarily hard to execute a smooth software transition, we expect to be live in April and the ...


The Responsibility of Service and the Fallacy of Some Healthcare Advertising

Published on 12/30/10 04:00PM by Gary Sheehan

When you own, operate or lead a company providing healthcare related services you have a responsibility to provide an appropriate level of care to your customers. Sure you could prove adept at acquiring new customers faster than the next operator, but if you don’t respond to their needs you don’t deserve to see that trend continu...


Summer travelers and tourists turn to Cape Medical Supply for their travelling medical equipment and oxygen needs

Published on 12/10/10 12:57PM by Gary Sheehan

This time of year Cape Codders tend to be locked behind closed doors, close to the fire, yearning for the warmer days of spring and summer to come – the recent cold snap in the region has been a fresh reminder of just how cold it gets in our neck of the woods. For shopkeepers, restaurateurs, and lodging professionals in the region, thi...


If you read one post, read this one: Engage with Grace

Published on 11/26/10 09:50AM by Gary Sheehan

The below is pulled directly from Matthew Holt’s blog post on “The Healthcare Blog” – a constantly thoughtful and in-depth look at the issues impacting modern healthcare. As many of you know, our family and company are keenly aware of issues affe...


Medtrade Trip

Published on 11/24/10 04:38PM by Gary Sheehan

Last week our senior executive team travelled to Atlanta to attend the Medtrade Conference, an annual gathering of industry folks from across the country which attracts tens of thousands of attendees, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and members of the media. It is always a unique glance into the collecti...


On the Record

Published on 11/15/10 12:17PM by Gary Sheehan

In yesterdays Sunday Cape Cod Times I was quoted on a few issues relating to Congressional priorities, as it relates to owning and managing a business, and more specifically a business which provides healthcare services to Medicare beneficiaries.

For ease of digestion I have pasted the text of original article below, you can ...


Boston Herald Article

Published on 11/09/10 03:23PM by Gary Sheehan

Boston Herald writer Jennifer Heldt Powell took the time to reach out to me recently to help her put together a piece on the regulations which are killing our industry, and she put together a very though...


Thank You All So Much!

Published on 10/26/10 10:35AM by Gary Sheehan

The below note is from my mother, Nancy Sheehan, Cape Medical Supply's co-founder...we were all deeply touched by the outpouring of support for the golf tournament last week and thrilled to have such a wonderful day to share stories and memories of Mark, while raising a substantial sum of money for the foundation.  It has certainly been ...


"The Friends and Family Plan"

Published on 10/07/10 08:23PM by Gary Sheehan

I received this note the other day and found it deeply moving as well as intriguing; unfortunately I didn’t have time to receive permission to print the name, so I run it as an anonymous piece here.

“Dear Gary and Sue at Cape Medical,
I want to thank you for the years of care and help we received from you...


Listening to our Professional Partners

Published on 10/01/10 11:44AM by Gary Sheehan

We continue to be obsessed with improving the experience of our customers and professional healthcare partners…every day we’re trying to make tweaks to the business to make our excellent service even better. To that end we recently conducted an extensive survey of our professional referral partners to learn more about how...


Medicare's Flawed Bidding Program

Published on 09/30/10 04:38PM by Gary Sheehan

The below post is copied from the Freakonomics Blog, the original post his hyperlinked HERE.  Those of us intimately involved in the Medicare competitive bidding program have long ...


2010 HME Business Summit

Published on 09/14/10 08:25PM by Gary Sheehan

I am travelling home from the 2010 HME Business Summit, an annual industry event put on by HME News. The intimate event gathers approximately 200 of the industry’s best and brightest for a review of current industry issues, robust idea sharing and a level and...


Getting a Company and Community Ready for a Hurricane

Published on 09/08/10 12:42PM by Gary Sheehan

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 supplement...


Recent News and Press

Published on 08/24/10 01:22PM by Gary Sheehan

Cape Medical Supply has received a lot of press about our expansion into the Boston marketplace, a project which was actually several years in the making and went through several iterations and ideas before we recently implemented it.

Boston...Here We Come! Published on 08/16/10 10:50AM by Gary Sheehan

Today Cape Medical Supply announced our latest expansion, a state of the art 5,000 square foot distribution and patient service center in Canton, MA. From this center Cape Medical Supply will service Greater Boston, as well as Eastern and Central MA with the same products and level of service we are so well known for across Southeastern MA.<...


Fundraising Follow-Up

Published on 07/26/10 06:46PM by Gary Sheehan

Back in June I wrote about how the Cape Medical Supply team had come together to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds. Through individual and collective efforts our two teams raised just over $5,500 for the Team-building and Fundraising Published on 06/24/10 11:05AM by Gary Sheehan

Over the years Cape Medical Supply has made supporting the local non-profit community a cornerstone of our company. We have supported agencies and organizations who continue to make a dramatic impact on the well being and success of our neighbors and we continue to prioritize this type of giving – to us it is more a responsibility than...


Engage the Team

Published on 06/14/10 11:58AM by Gary Sheehan

What if every American corporation engaged their employees and team members in engineering their corporation for improvement? How much better might things be if EVERY team member was empowered to give feedback to the highest levels to help improve service and performance? What if their feedback was taken seriously and acted upon, with a sen...


Open up and say "ahhh..."

Published on 05/20/10 09:17AM by Gary Sheehan

Healthcare is a highly regulated industry, as such we open ourselves to scrutiny from any number of outside agencies who can drop-in unannounced and peek around to see what we’re doing and ensure that we are compliant, honest and are doing all we can to provide high quality patient care.

Last week we were subjected to o...


The Passing of our co-founder

Published on 04/23/10 04:32PM by Gary Sheehan

It’s been a trying few weeks around Cape Medical Supply, as company co-founder Mark Sheehan, my dad, passed away three weeks ago today. Mark was deeply connected to so many of our long term employees, so the loss has been tough on the entire company. We have all managed to share some wonderful stories about his life, sense of humor, a...


Beacon Hill Trip

Published on 03/15/10 12:14PM by Gary Sheehan

Following the trip to DC I headed up to Beacon Hill for several meetings, alongside some other dedicated and concerned members of NEMED. We are not only aggressively fighting federal policy makers, who control the Medicare program, but increasingly we are running into MA Medicaid policies which place an in...


2010 DC Recap: Busy, Interested, Afraid and Hopeful

Published on 03/11/10 02:12PM by Gary Sheehan

Last week marked another trip to DC to meet with federal legislators to discuss the work we do and patients we serve, as well as review some current legislation which is moving through the House, H.R. 3790. It was a busy trip and I’ve been glad to see some strong momentum on Back to Washington and How to Look at Overall Spending Published on 02/22/10 01:00PM by Gary Sheehan

Monday (3/1) I will be flying to Washington DC for the 2010 AAHomecare Legislative Conference and Lobbying Day. It will be my third trip to this event and I believe my sixth or seventh trip to DC on legislative related business in the last few years. Too many trips because we rema...

Technology, Service and Going Google

Published on 02/19/10 03:11PM by Gary Sheehan

Communication and collaboration are incredibly important in service driven organizations, they are what drive service performance and allow individuals from across an organization to provide consistent, reliable, and remarkable service to customers. In the “digital age” it is an increasingly complex task to share, collaborate, an...

The Non-Profit Coffee Shop

Published on 02/14/10 02:22PM by Gary Sheehan

Community support has long been a part of our business model at Cape Medical Supply and it’s one of the key strengths to doing business with a local company; not only do they employ team members at all levels who keep money in the community, but they tend to work to support the local non-profit community in a much more meaningful and im...

This blog is written and maintained by Cape Medical Supply Chief Executive Officer, Gary Sheehan.  We hope it serves as an entertaining and educational look at the home medical equipment and respiratory care industry...some good information, a few laughs and a sharp look inside a fast growing company that is wholly dedicated to improving the customer experience.

 

 

 

  

 

Other Industry Blogs

 

HME News Blog

AAHomecare Blog

Wall Street Journal Health Blog

The Healthcare Blog