Mitchell Home Medical spreads to Ohio

YPSILANTI, Mich. - Mitchell Home Medical busted out of Michigan in early November and opened two new locations in Ohio, 45 minutes south of Toledo - one in Findlay, the other in Fremont. “Those markets are under served, and as long as we provide a good name and good customer service, I think we are going to do very well,” said Larry Loewen, Mitchell's director of sales and marketing. “I feel our respiratory programs will set the pace down there.” Mitchell also operates four locations in Michigan. In another big move, the provider signed a September deal with Invacare to purchase 25 Venture HomeFill II transfilling oxygen concentrators a month for 12 months. The move is intended to help offset Medicare reimbursement cuts by reducing deliveries of oxygen cylinders to ambulatory respiratory patients. The HomeFill allows patients to fill oxygen cylinders in their home. “We've got to be proactive,” Loewen said. “It is unfortunate that (CMS) doesn't recognize the service component. It is not just a piece of equipment we are slapping out there.” The also company plans to streamline its operations by implementing a paperless office by mid 2005. Going paperless, Loewen said, will save the company money by reducing or eliminating office tasks like data entry and retrieval and faxing documents. In turn, that should reduce human errors as well as money spent on paper. “We're not thinking of selling,” Loewen said. “Over the next five years, we're going to continue our economic expansion, cut delivery costs, increase our ad programs and customer service.”