HE WAS TIRED of it. It was on television and in the newspaper, and he was just plain sick of hearing his profession and the industry he was a part of get blasted and besmirched.

"What about us-the good guys?" he asked himself after a late October 60 Minutes TV expose about the rampant fraud and abuse within the MediCal system. "What about the guys who go about our business and try to improve the quality of a patient's life?"

So Jeff Cooper, president of Premier Healthcare Equipment, Culver City, Calif., took it upon himself to help remedy the problem. He decided to do what he could to prove to his current customers-and to the people in his community-that the majority of home medical equipment providers are upstanding, law-abiding entrepreneurs who care about their patients. They aren't the devious, fraud-ridden scoundrels whom the media has been covering in the recent MediCal fraud scandal.

"There was so much going on about our industry," Cooper recalls. "The 60 Minutes MediCal fraud expose and the local networks and Los Angeles Times stories were so negative...I wanted to put a positive spin on our industry and at least attempt to counteract some of the negative press our industry has been getting."

Cooper's plan was this: Host a Tuneup Day when patients with HME equipment could have that equipment checked and get minor repairs-free of charge. So on a Saturday last December, Cooper and his staff set up in front of his store and got to work replacing cane and walker tips, adjusting and lubricating brakes on specialty walkers, and adjusting and tightening parts on wheelchairs and scooters. Making it all possible, he notes, were a number of equipment donations from manufacturers.

To spread the word about the event, Cooper contacted current customers as well as local senior centers, hospitals and physicians. "And we had a decent turnout, considering we held it on a Saturday so close to Christmas," he says. "Some of the customers came using tennis balls as tips on their canes; others had walker tips that were worn down to the metal rods. People normally have to pay to get this fixed, so they were pleased." To keep customers happy even while they waited, Premier Healthcare Equipment also set up a hot dog and soft drink stand.

Cooper considers the inaugural Tuneup Day a valuable learning experience. "I've already started to make revisions for when I hold the next one," he says. At the top of the list of improvements, he says, is his plan to take his show on the road at senior centers and retirement homes. Expecting patients with impaired mobility to make the trek down to his store, he believes, cut down on attendance at the first Tuneup Day

The good news is that from a business standpoint, he did accomplish what he set out to do. "It didn't help business as far as actual sales were concerned, but I really didn't expect it to," Cooper says. "From a customer relations standpoint, it worked out really well. Down the road, I'd like to think our current and future customers will remember it and know that we care." HC