Company Name: Rice Home Medical Location: Willmar, Minn. Main Products and Services: home oxygen, wheelchairs, walking aids, extended care equipment, IV therapy, mastectomy products, support groups No. of Branches: 4 No. of Employees: 40 Web site: www.ricehomemedical.com

IT ISN'T EASY for employees of a home medical equipment provider to bump into customers at the gas station or the middle school open house and field questions such as, “What about my brother's walker?” and “Why was there a service charge on my dad's last bill?”

But it is common for rural providers such as Rice Home Medical of Willmar, Minn. “We face these people every day in our grocery stores, at church. It's hard when people stop and ask about grandma's wheelchair or mom's last bill. I don't know if they have that in big cities,” says Carol Laumer, executive director of Rice Home Medical.

The challenges for a provider in a rural setting are different from those in a metropolitan area, and in the eyes of the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services, those that meet them should be rewarded. Which is why, for its first Provider of the Year Award, MAMES chose to honor Rice Home Medical.

“Their whole mentality is patient first,” said Rose Schafhauser, executive director of MAMES. “They're part of a big system within a number of counties in Minnesota, and they're cost efficient [while] still having high patient satisfaction.”

Laumer, who has been a part of the home medical equipment industry since 1988, says that the close contact with the company's customers “makes us sharper on our toes.” But maintaining that contact while expanding from a concentrated, rural provider has been a challenge, she says.

“I've seen [the company] grow from three employees at one small location here in Willmar to 40 employees and four locations,” Laumer says. “It was easy when we had three people to all be on the same page. Someone would approach me in the grocery store and ask about grandma's wheelchair, and I would probably know who and what they were talking about.”

But company growth has threatened to break this link to individual patients, she says.

Forging a Bond

To prevent that, Rice Home Medical has attempted to strengthen its link with patients through education. “Our company strongly believes in education,” says Laumer. To ensure the highest quality of service, she says, following up with patients and other industry professionals is essential.

“We hold support groups here at our facility on mastectomy and rehab. We bring in nursing services to educate patients about oxygen use and equipment — where to find it and how to use it. We want people to look at us as a source of education,” she explains.

Serving the patient's best interests is not always an issue of outsmarting the competition, says Laumer. Sometimes it even means referring patients to another source. “We want to establish a relationship with (the patient),” she says. “We act as a reference for them … We're not just out for the bottom dollar.”

Such efforts to best serve the patient have helped Rice Home Medical to achieve what Laumer describes as “remembering quality versus price.” Although she considers putting dinner on the table a definite priority, she has learned her lesson when it comes to sacrificing quality to make a buck. “In this industry of cutting back,” she says, “if I go straight for the bottom dollar, I'll be out there driving 50 miles to replace something.”

Impressing the Competition

Finding the best way to serve patients hasn't been the only challenge Rice Home Medical has faced in a rural marketplace. “Just because we're in a rural setting doesn't mean we don't have competitors,” says Laumer.

In fact, it was Rice Home Medical's competition that impressed the MAMES awards task force. “Businesses took the time to fill out an application to nominate Rice Home Medical — a competitor,” says Schafhauser. That turned heads on the task force.

“We had providers fill out an application, and they could nominate an individual or a company. We were looking for someone that demonstrates innovation, compassion, integrity, a high commitment to customer satisfaction, and someone who works with the state and national legislature,” says Schafhauser. Rice Home Medical fulfilled, and in most cases exceeded, these qualifications, she says.

Laumer believes that communication with competitors has been essential to her company's success. “When I first started out in this business — way back when in 1988 — one of our local jewelers said, ‘You need to know your competitors, Carol. You never know when you'll need them.’ I have called on my competitors and feel that they've called on me, sharing information on policies and procedures.”

But even with the cooperative spirit forged with competitors, Laumer is keenly aware of another challenge.

“The challenge I face,” she says, “is educating employees — keeping them working for me and not for someone else or leaving the business.”

To mitigate this threat, Rice Home Medical invests heavily in the continued education of its staff. Training for new employees involves videos and manuals combined with on-the-job training so employees can immediately see the philosophy implemented in practice. “Our education budget is growing every year,” says Laumer. “We want our employees to feel that the company cares for them.”

The goal for each employee is to attend a minimum of one workshop or educational conference a year, she says.

Blushing at Compliments

The investment in employee education has paid off for the company, as evidenced by staff members who nominated Rice Home Medical for the MAMES award. “I've been given autonomy, empowerment to do my job,” one employee said. Other employees praised the quality of equipment, the teamwork and the customer service “niceties.”

With the honor of receiving the inaugural MAMES Provider of the Year award, the efforts of Rice Home Medical have been rewarded. “On the night I got this award, it was pretty emotional for me,” Laumer says. “To be acknowledged by your peers and get an award like this was awesome. It's not just all about the bottom dollar and battling Medicare.”

And though it isn't always easy to appease the concerns of her neighbors in Willmar, Minn., Laumer is proud of Rice Home Medical's success. She has enjoyed hearing firsthand from satisfied customers she bumps into at Little League games or the pharmacy.

One gentleman, the husband of an oxygen patient, told Laumer, “Your people are so good, how do you find such good people?” A mastectomy patient told her, “When I go to [Rice] Home Medical, they treat me like a queen.”

For Laumer, the gratitude of her customers is award enough.

Has good thinking paid off for your business? HomeCare magazine would like to hear about it. Contact Majory Garrison at 800/543-4116, ext. 160; fax: 310/317-0264; or e-mail: mgarrison@primediabusiness.com

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For more innovative business ideas, check out the Good Thinking columns in the online archives on our site: www.homecaremag.com

Good Thinking for New Providers

IN AN INDUSTRY that doesn't always open its doors to newcomers, Carol Laumer offers some friendly advice to providers starting out, and a reminder to industry vets:

• Educate yourself about the industry

• Know what you're getting into

• Stay informed about legislation

• Participate in associations. “There is strength in numbers,” says Laumer.

• Attend trade shows for two reasons: “To learn more and to maintain your sanity. So you know, ‘I'm not the only one with that problem,’” says Laumer.

• Remember quality versus price, says Laumer, because ultimately, it's quality that keeps customers coming back.
  — M.G.

Strength in Numbers

TO FACILITATE an open forum with competitors, Carol Laumer of Rice Home Medical suggests involvement in state and regional associations such as MAMES. A former president of the Minnesota Association of Medical Equipment Services before it teamed with Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri to form MAMES, Laumer continues to be active in the association, as well as with the American Association for Homecare.

“Her commitment to the associations — she obviously believes in them and is active with them,” says Schafhauser.

“I believe in this industry,” Laumer says. An advocate for licensure, which is not yet on the books in Minnesota, she stresses the value of achieving unity for members of the associations. “Let's have standards that mean something,” she says. “Together, we're a much stronger force than a lone voice out there in the woods.”

Laumer described a situation last year when bids for oxygen service were sought in her Minnesota area. When another company won the bid, Laumer's reaction to the disappointment of her own employees and her competitors was: “We need to stick together as an industry.” It is enough of a challenge to retain employees in this business, she says, so cutthroat battles with competitors are destructive for the industry.
— M.G.