Medically Fragile Consumers - Hurtado & Associates

In the light of the events currently swirling around us relative to the COVID-19 Corona virus, a disease that seems to be particularly threatening for the elderly and the medically compromised, it seems like a good time to review the issues involved in identifying these people and what can be done to assist those medically compromised consumers & family members in the event of a power outage.

The first point to note is that this issued is primarily the responsibility of the members themselves!

It is obvious that if your health is such that you are dependent on an oxygen generator to support your breathing, it is imperative that you take steps to ensure that you have a backup plan. I know I would! So, in the role of power suppliers, it is important that you marshal your communication systems to support this message.

Take advantage of your company Web site and use it to remind everyone that there cannot be any “guarantee” of an uninterrupted power supply. Advise them that those who rely on electrically powered medical devices need to plan for emergencies. Steps such as keeping spare oxygen tanks for use as backups, or having a generator installed, as well as arranging an evacuation plan to a medical facility, can all be part of a well thought out emergency plan. Your company's social media sites (You have them too, don't you?) are another good way to get this word out, taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter accounts that more and more utilities are employing to communicate with consumers.

Next, make sure that your medical needs list is up to date and available to the staffers who may need it. A common recommendation offered to our program's utilities is have a current list of medically fragile consumers. Start by asking that these members identify themselves to you, as early as when consumers sign up for power, and follow up by asking again periodically in your regular communications with them — newsletters, bill stuffers, Public Service Announcements, etc. Ask them to supply you with their medical provider’s description of their need.

And don’t neglect to have a followup plan for yourselves. To the surprise of no one, it is a rare event when someone calls in and asks to be taken off the “medical needs” list now that their family member has moved to a care facility, another relative's house, or is now deceased. The main reason for this is that most members of the public think that being on the list will get them priority attention or motivate the utility to "turn on" their power first. Nobody volunteers to give that up!

To keep the list of medially fragile consumers as "clean" as possible, most of our client utilities have set up a contact system using mailings or even phone calls, which ask for a resubmission of the medical documentation. Some do this annually, others every two years, some even three. You decide what works best for you, but don't choose never. Those who omit this step tend to find that they end up with a longer list than they should have. As recently as March of 2020 I met with a manager who said they used their medically fragile consumer list to help set operational priorities in widespread outages. He was surprised when he he realized that this data might be cluttered with out-of-date information, since their HR folks hadn’t done any follow-up checks on the listed names for several years, if ever.

With all of the tumult arising out of the COVID-19 Corona virus across the country, this is an opportune time to remind all our medially fragile consumers of the critical importance of having a backup plan as a safety net, just in case. And, if your list of these people is up to date, it is easier to make direct contact with those who most need the reminder!