2006 HomeCaring Awards

HomeCare's HomeCaring Awards^™ are given to recognize service and commitment to the home medical equipment community.

For 2006, the magazine has recognized three exceptional individuals whose efforts on the industry's behalf have distinguished them at the highest level: Nagle Bridwell of Newton Square, Pa.-based Ultimate Resource; Bonnie Laster, a respiratory care practitioner and assistant manager of Rowan Medical Facilities in Salisbury, N.C.; and Dan Meuser, president of Exeter, Pa.-based Pride USA.

The awards were presented at an afternoon ceremony Sept. 19 at the Georgia World Congress Center during Medtrade 2006. The presentation was hosted by emcee Jack Evans of Malibu, Calif.-based Global Media Marketing.

The three recipients were chosen from nominees submitted by HomeCare's readers and judged by a panel of seven industry professionals, including: Jerold Cohen, president, Caesar Cohen Ltd.; Louis Feuer, president, Dynamic Seminars & Consulting; Miriam Lieber, president, Lieber Consulting; Simon Margolis, vice president, National Seating & Mobility, and past president, Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA); Sheldon “Shelly” Prial, Prial Consulting; Wallace Weeks, president, Weeks Group; and Colette Weil, managing director, Summit Marketing.

With a long career in HME as one of the co-founders of The Med Group, Nagle Bridwell remembers naming the Sip ‘n Puff, and he also remembers when bringing someone home with a ventilator or a complicated seating system was not possible — but he did it anyway.

Bridwell was the founder of the Pennsylvania Association of Medical Suppliers and also helped in forming the New Jersey Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers. On the national front, he was one of the founders of NADMAC, a forerunner to NAMES and AAHomecare.

Bridwell is “dedicated to making the home medical industry a profession to be proud to be part of,” a nomination letter reads.

During an ice storm in 2002, 185 of Rowan Medical's oxygen patients were left without electricity — for five days — but due to Bonnie Laster's preparation and patient care, there was not a single emergency incident for those patients. Laster also has developed a blueprint for oxygen patient education, and the procedures, forms and follow-up patient checklist that she put in place for Rowan have been published by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).