Members With Medical Needs: Here’s a Tip!

By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU

When Synebar’s field consultants visit cooperatives in this program, we often explain part of our role by making reference to our goal of serving as a resource that can share the best ideas and practices we learn from our meetings with individual utilities with every other member of the group. We don’t think of it as stealing. We think of it as the ultimate form of flattery.

Earlier this year I learned a neat tip while visiting a utility in Colorado. Ever since that time, we have been sharing it with others as we visit, and almost everyone so far has said it’s a great idea. So, instead of sharing this tip one visit at a time, we decided to share it with everyone through this approach.

Virtually all power distribution companies are concerned about consumers with special medical needs that are met using various types of equipment requiring electricity. Of course, the first challenge is identifying those folks who are using oxygen generators, home dialysis machines, or other electric powered medical equipment. Most utilities ask new members about this issue. Many follow this up announcements asking members to let them know if they become dependent on such equipment through advertisements in their statewide magazine, their own monthly publications, local papers, radio ads or some of these media. Some even have asked local medical providers (both physicians and equipment suppliers) to let them know if a patient is moved onto one of these support machines.

Once they are identified, it is important to keep the information available for those who need it in their work, including servicemen, meter readers, line crews and the office billing and collection staff. Many companies flag their billing or account files with a special field or flag that allows them to mark these accounts. Obviously, it could be a disaster to order a disconnection on a member whom you know to be medially dependent, without first making sure all the proper procedures had been followed. Many RECs also provide access to this information, or provide printed lists, to the dispatching staff so they can alert service people of the facts. Some utilities even put “medically sensitive member” lists in the hands of all of the field staff. Of course, unless the company is one of the very few that have field access to the computer system, these lists need to be reprinted frequently in order to keep them up to date.

Here’s the neat tip: The Colorado utility I mentioned visiting had come up with a simple and inexpensive technique to make sure that there was one last chance to be sure that no medically dependent consumer was ever disconnected by mistake. They used a special color meter seal on all these members’ meters. Then, any time a field worker found a seal of this color (I think they used gold, but you can choose any color you like!) the worker was required to call the office to confirm that the proper procedures had already been handled before doing anything that would interrupt the power.

Isn’t that a great final check? And the great thing about it is that it is practically free, since you already have to buy a meter seal, and getting an additional color is hardly more expensive. In fact, I have found that a fair number of utilities already use a special color to notify workers of another class of member, those, we shall say, whose history suggests that special attention should be paid to the condition of the meter itself. So, why not add one additional flag, one that says, “Hey, this is a medically dependent member, call the office and make sure that it’s okay before you do anything to interrupt the power.”

It’s a practically perfect safety technique. It’s easy to implement, inexpensive to use, and anybody can quickly and easily learn it. Why not give it a try? And if your organization, like the Colorado utility, already thought of this, congratulations to you!