Joint Commission Accreditation Granted

On July 30, 2007, Medstar Medical was accredited by The Joint Commission for all services contained in the the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Home Care. According to The Joint Commission, its accreditation process " ... is designed to help your organization continuously provide safe, high-quality care, treatment and services by identifying opportunities for improvement in your processes and helping you follow through on and implement these improvements" (Personal Communication, July 30, 2007). The conditional accreditation survey activity completed by The Joint Commission on July 26, 2007, found that no follow-up activity was required of Medstar Medical.

Accreditation by The Joint Commission is both a recognition and a validation of the high patient care standards that we as an organization have set for ourselves and constantly strive to attain. The unyielding focus of Karen Grant, the company General Manager, on prepping the company for the intense survey effort was key to our success.

A fuller understanding of The Joint Commission, its standards, and processes can be obtained at www.jointcommission.org.

Continuous Service Improvements

As a part of our effort to ensure provision of excellent service to our customers, and to seek an understanding of where we need to improve when customers express dissatisfaction, we have implemented a customer satisfaction program targeted at long-term care facilities and home-based patients. The surveys are conducted on an ongoing basis and the results are tabulated and analyzed quarterly. The results for the second quarter of 2007 follow.

Home-Based Patients

• 100% percent of in-home customers felt that we delivered/picked up our products on time. This is up from 93.3% in the first quarter.
• Our products were in good working order 100% of the time and were repaired promptly in the event of a problem. This mirrors the result in this category in the first quarter.
• Our technicians were courteous/helpful 100% of the time. This is up from 94% in the first quarter and reflects management focus to improve the score in this area.
• Our administrative staff was courteous and helpful 100% of the time. A similar result was obtained in the first quarter.
• Staff was helpful in answering questions and providing instruction on the use of the equipment 100% of the time. This represents an improvement from 90% in the first quarter and, again, reflects management focus in an area that was "underperforming."

Facilities

• Equipment was delivered and picked up on time 95% of the time. This was down from 100% in the first quarter.
• Our products were in good working order and performed to expectations 100% of the time. This was on par with our performance in the first quarter.
• Our products were repaired promptly in the event of a problem 100% of the time. Similar results were obtained in the first quarter.
• Our technicians were courteous and helpful 100% of the time, up from 92% in the first quarter.

Overall we are very pleased with the results but vigilance is the order of the day to ensure continued customer satisfaction with Medstar Medical.

FHCA Show

The Medstar Marketing team exhibited at the FHCA/FCAL 2007 Annual Conference and Trade Show which was held at the Boca Raton Resort and Club July 23 - 26, 2007. The trade show was well attended and a steady flow of customers, prospects, and "window shoppers" kept us fairly busy. In addition to meeting customers and prospects, the show also provided an opportunity to look at some new offerings in our space and we will review a select few in future postings.