Your patients’ comfort doesn’t have to cost you exorbitantly. MDM Healthcare offers hospital air conditioners designed for both comfort and savings.

What has the world come to when Punxatawney Phil gets indicted for fraud? The unseasonably frigid weather in many parts of the country has people everywhere railing against the rodent who traditionally predicts the onset of spring by whether he sees his shadow on February 2. The Groundhog Day prediction was that springtime weather would come early this year, but wintry conditions continue nearly two months later.

All the weather talk has many considering whether their air conditioning and heating systems are up to par. If it’s time your hospital or healthcare facility upgraded, take a look at MDM Healthcare. We offer top-of-the-line hospital air conditioning systems designed for ultimate comfort for your patients and employees, and savings for your business.

Our top seller is the GE 4100 Series PTAC, considered the most energy-efficient PTAC in the industry. Digital controls, two fan motors and electronic temperature limiting all help deliver a comfortable climate while saving you money. Plus, Heat and Freeze Sentinel technology protects unoccupied rooms from excessive heat in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter.

Ready to upgrade your hospital’s air conditioning and heating system? Call MDM Healthcare at 800-673-0929.

The right hotel air conditioning system can keep your guests comfortable and your costs low.

Some are calling the year of the “rage against the rodent.” On Groundhog Day, Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow, thus convincing Americans that warmer weather was just six weeks away. But two months later, much of the northern half of the nation is still digging itself out of the snow. Even in the South, unseasonably cold weather is wracking nerves.

All this weather talk has hoteliers everywhere checking to make sure their air conditioning and heating systems are working – and working efficiently. This is particularly true for hotels and inns in Southern locales, filled with guests who had expected to don swimsuits rather than sweaters while traveling.

If it’s time to upgrade your hotel air conditioning system, MDM Lodging can help. We offer top-line AC and heating systems designed to deliver ultimate comfort for your guests while saving your business money. The GE 4100 Series PTAC is touted as the most energy-efficient in the industry. Digital controls, dual fan motors and electronic temperature limiting help keep costs low, while Heat and Freeze Sentinel technology protects unoccupied rooms from excessive heat in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter.

Keep your guests comfortable and your climate control costs minimal by contacting MDM Lodging at 800-673-0929.

March means the start of the two-month spring break season. How is your hospital or healthcare facility preparing?

March means the beginning of the spring break season. And for hospitals in popular spring break destination cities, that can mean a busy few months.

Among the most common spring break-related injuries and illnesses are:

• Slip and fall injuries
• Alcohol poisoning
• Sun poisoning
• Dehydration
• Car accident injuries
• Balcony fall injuries

To ready for the sometimes crazed March-April spring break season, many hospitals prepare informational brochures about common injuries and the best ways to avoid them. These brochures then are distributed to area hotels, restaurants and other attractions that spring breakers frequent. Social media plays a huge role in dispensing tips and information, as do more traditional publicity routes such as media releases to local media outlets, or prepared public service announcements on television and radio and in local publications.

Hospitals also are making use of their onsite television and digital signage systems to help spread the word and encourage safety among not only spring breakers, but staff and visitors as well. After all, spring break means an onslaught of partiers who can overcrowd the same venues that local frequent, and often drive inebriated on the same roads that drive.

How is your hospital or healthcare facility preparing for spring break? Post your thoughts and ideas on the MDM Healthcare Facebook Fan Page.

The spring break season has begun. How is your hotel cashing in?

March means the start of the spring break season – one of the busiest for hotels nationwide, but particularly those in sunny, beachside locales. Are you ready for the onslaught of college students ready to have a great time and spend money in your hotel and local shops? MDM Lodging offers a few ideas for cashing in on this classic American tradition.

• Take your message “where the boys (and girls) are”: The 1960 film, Where the Boys Are, is credited with making spring break a nationwide collegiate tradition. Four female friends drive to Fort Lauderdale in hopes of having some fun in the sun and perhaps enjoying a week-long fling with a cute boy. Take a cue and take your message where virtually every college age individual is hanging out these days – on social media sites. Post your spring break promotions and specials, along with some convincing reasons for spending the annual holiday at your hotel.
• Look outside your front door: Connect with local restaurants, bars, night clubs and attractions that appeal to spring breakers and create co-promotions that benefit you both. Such guest perks might include discounts, free drinks or gift cards for your guests to enjoy.
• Take advantage of your captive audience: Use your hotel guestroom TVs and digital signage to let guests know about specials at your on-site restaurants, local events, area attractions, etc. It’ll add to your guests’ spring break experience and help take some of the burden off your already busy hotel staff.
• Play it safe: It’s an unfortunate fact that partying spring breakers can get out of hand. Make sure they and your other guests are safe by beefing up security. Post expectations of spring breakers to keep noise and late night shenanigans to a minimum and hire extra security for the March-April spring break season. You may even want to consider dedicating a particular floor or area for spring breakers. This will help minimize disturbances to other guests.
• Don’t forget your littlest guests: Remember that not all spring breakers are college students. Many families with school-age children take advantage of the spring break holiday, too. Help them enjoy their stay by offering family-friendly parties or events onsite, specials at your hotel restaurants and cafes, or discount deals to local kid-friendly attractions.

From all of us here at MDM Lodging, have a safe, fun and profitable spring break season!

Hotel restaurant burgers and other traditional fare get a gourmet boost in 2013. Make sure your guests’ dining experience is up to par.

Baum + Whiteman, a major force in the food world since 1970, is known for creating two of the world’s largest grossing restaurants, more 3-star restaurants than anyone in the United States, and numerous international food, hotel and related concepts. So, when they dole out advice, restaurateurs and hoteliers listen.

The Brooklyn-based company recently released a report detailing what they see as the 17 hottest food and dining trends for restaurants and hotels in 2013. MDM Lodging shares three of our favorites:

• Flavor-fused libations: Ambitious bartenders increasingly are becoming full-on mixologists. It’s a skill that will be particularly valuable this year, as bars strive to create lines of new signature drinks. Vodka, gin and rum are being mixed with mango, kiwi, grenadine (a syrup made from pomegranate juice), even dried fruit, vegetables and herbs in a creative effort to stretch the notion of hand-crafted cocktails. But it’s not just alcoholic beverages undergoing a fancying-up. Consider offering artisan sodas and smoothies made with fresh and local fruits, berries and herbs. Favorite flavorings include hibiscus, pomegranate, lemongrass and basil.
• Boosted burgers: The plain ol’ bacon cheeseburger is out. Today’s burger connoisseurs demand saucy upgrades and better buns. Consider having your hotel restaurant and café chefs whip up signature sauces made with guacamole, pineapple, mushrooms, crispy onions and the like. And homemade buns can get a gourmet boost with surprising ingredients like sage, parsley, even orange juice.
• Souped-up Snacks: Simple snacks are so 2012. Even the word is getting an upgrade. Yesterday’s midnight or midday snack is today’s “fourth meal.” And traditional snack fare just won’t get it any more. Rolled sandwiches with gourmet sauces; gourmet French fries made with sweet potatoes or coupled with savory dipping sauces made with ingredients like lemon zest and chopped parsley, crushed red pepper and basil, or warmed white truffle oil and Parmesan cheese.

While upgrading your menu, why not upgrade your look, too? MDM Lodging’s design specialists can help you seek out and select hotel restaurant tables, chairs, bar stools, window treatments and artwork to create a space that’s as visually appealing as your new menu is delicious. Call 800-673-0929 today.

Community engagement can significantly boost your hospital’s revenues, patient satisfaction scores and much more.

Want to boost your hospital or healthcare facility’s quality of care, satisfaction scores and revenue? Pick up the phone and get connected with your community, say researchers with the American Hospital Association. Recent studies show that engaging community players can significantly boost not only your hospital’s image, but many of its operations as well.

A recent study shows that community support and engagement can lends big help in multiple ways, including raising funds for new programs, services and expansion projects, and gaining support for tax measures and hospital-wide changes. But the benefits go beyond fundraising and friend-raising.

Study results showed fewer medication errors, patient satisfaction scores and fewer rehospitalizations, particularly among Medicare patients, in hospitals that deeply engaged community members. And each of those benefits helps to reduce costs and improve a hospital’s image. A better image of course leads to more patients choosing your hospital for treatment of their health issues.

Among the ways that many hospitals engage community members is creating focus groups to help make decisions on issues including staffing, development of new services and outreach projects, and steering committees to implement and direct such initiatives.

How does your hospital connect with and engage community members for the benefit of your patients? Post your thoughts on the MDM Healthcare Facebook Fan Page.

Travelers can be a forgetful bunch. What do you keep in your hotel concierge cabinet?

Travelers can be a harried and forgetful bunch. So, the best hotel concierges keep a fully stocked Oh, Dear! cabinet filled with guests’ most missed items. That way, when your desk clerks get the inevitable call crying, “Oh, dear! I forgot my (fill in the blank), they’re ready to help.

MDM Lodging compiled a list of the top most requested items from A to Z:

A – Alcohol pads, adapters for electrical items for travelers from foreign countries
B – Band aids, bowties, bottle openers, batteries
C – Cell phone chargers, contact lens cases and solution, cufflinks
D – Dental floss, dress socks, deodorant
E – Eyeglass repair kits, emery boards, ear plugs, Ethernet cables
F – Feminine hygiene items, first aid kits
G – Gift boxes and bags
H – Hair pins, hair dryers
I – Insect spray
J – Jewelry bags or boxes
K – Kleenex packs, Kindle chargers
L – Language dictionary
M – Magnifying glass
N – Needle and thread, notebooks
O – Office supplies, oil blotting papers
P – Plastic rain ponchos, plastic bags for wet clothes
Q – Q-tips
R – Razor blades, rain hats, rubber bands
S – Screw drivers, sewing kits, staplers, sunscreen, socks
T – Tacks, tape, tool kits, ties, tweezers, toothbrushes, toothpaste
U – Umbrellas, USB flash drives
V – Vaseline
W – Wine keys, wrapping paper, winter coats
X – Xbox and other game controllers
Y – Yarmulkes
Z – Zip lock bags for loose or wet items, zip ties

What do you keep in your Oh, Dear! cabinet? Any odd requests from forgetful guests? Post your thoughts on the MDM Lodging Facebook Fan Page.

Technology increasingly will factor into hospital and healthcare facility operations in 2013.

A month into 2013, no doubt you’re seeing certain trends at play in your hospital or healthcare facility. According to the American Hospital Association and Hospitals & Health Networks these 10 key themes will mark much of the hospital and healthcare industry this year:

1. Associations: Membership in hospital and healthcare provider associations is proving a profitable decision. Among the benefits are data collection and analysis that can be used to develop business goals, objectives and strategy; and encouragement of discussion among peers via social media outlets;
2. Information technology and e-health: ICD-10 implementation looms large, as does , mobile health, big data, information exchange and EHRs;
3. Insurance and coverage: Medicare costs, Medicaid spending and enrollment growth and consumer-driven health plans no doubt will figure significantly;
4. Political issues: Capitol Hill will always play into your plans, and recent rulings will mean significant change and challenge. Of top concern this year are the reduction of Medicare provider rates, the Supreme Court ruling Medicaid expansion unconstitutional, and the reduction of federal support for hospital Medicaid and Medicare programs;
5. Provider organizations and physicians: The rise of retail clinics, the creation of a culture of performance excellence and accountability, and the increasing need for hospitals to operate more leanly and effectively are major drivers this year;
6. Quality and patient safety: More hospitals are instituting penalties for poor quality metrics, developing cost savings opportunities in supply-sensitive care, offering care coordination during hospital-to-home transitions, and addressing concern that public reports fairly and accurately reflect hospital performance;
7. Science and technology: Hospitals and healthcare providers continue to trend toward wireless, paperless, high-tech and eco-friendly operation. This includes the capability to build and enhance virtual provider networks, the use of smartphones and tablets, the proliferation of e-visits, and the facilitation of hospital care through wireless technology;
8. Human resources: Building trust between physicians and hospitals, demand for highly skilled human capital, and shortages of primary care physician will significantly factor into your hiring decisions;
9. Consumers and demographics: Your physicians will see a rise in adult and childhood obesity and an increase in chronic conditions among patients. More Baby Boomers are working past the age of 65 and families are providing the majority of care to the elderly;
10. Economy and finance: A negative outlook for the nonprofit health care sector based on modest projections for hospital revenue growth, the expectation of ongoing economic softness throughout the country, and financial and operating pressures resulting from regulatory challenges will remain for several years. Facilities that are part of hospital mergers and acquisitions will fare best.

How is your hospital addressing these trends and challenges? Post your thoughts on the MDM Healthcare Facebook Fan Page.

Seal Shield antimicrobial and fungistatic products by MDM Healthcare can help keep your employees healthy all year.

The 2013 flu season has been particularly harsh. And according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans have another month to go before it’s over. The news poses a potential problem for business owners, considering that influenza is to blame for upwards of 70 million missed workdays and $10 billion in lost wages.

So how do you keep your employees – and your hospital or healthcare company’s bottom line – healthy? MDM Healthcare offers a few tips.

• Arrange for your employees to get free or reduced-cost flu shots annually before flu season begins.
• Encourage employees to wash their hands frequently, particularly after engaging with patients and guests who may have or have been exposed to the flu.
• Provide hand sanitizer for employees unable to leave their desks or workstations often.
• Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs like the flu.
• Invest in Seal Shield antimicrobial products including computer keyboards, mice and remote controls.  Seal Shield products can be washed or put in the dishwasher for cleaning. Plus, most products in the line are protected with Silver Seal, an antimicrobial, fungistatic agent that inhibits the growth of mold, mildew, fungi, microbes and odor-causing bacteria on work surfaces.

You work in healthcare already. Practice what you preach and keep your employees and guests healthy. Contact MDM Healthcare at 800-673-0929.

A down economy is a great time to upgrade your hotel or inn’s furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Among the biggest mistakes a hotelier can make in slow economy is to act like he’s in a slow economy. While competitors are pulling back, your best bet is to pull out all the stops when it comes to packaging and promotion. And that means renovating.

When times are tough, travelers are looking for the best value they can get. Think “under-promise, over-deliver.” Give them a look and feel that’s a notch higher than what they’re expecting and you can bet they’ll return and tell their friends.

So why is a down economy a great time for an upgrade?

• Less loss of revenue: Upgrading or renovating during slow times when many rooms are empty already means you won’t be turning away business.
• Negotiating power: During economic slowdowns, franchises and vendors likely are feeling the money squeeze, too. So, they’re more likely to negotiate the scope and costs of renovations and upgrades.
• Maximizing your property’s value: Upgrading or renovating during an economic downturn will not just protect, but help maximize your property value. When the market rebounds (and it will) you’ll be set for a greater return on your investment.

Now, how should you invest? If it’s been a while since your last redecorating, new furniture and fixtures is a surefire way to immediately boost your property’s ambiance. Microwaves and refrigerators increasingly are in demand for not just higher-dollar suites, but lower-cost guest rooms as well. A major complaint of guests in rooms near ice machines is the constant humming and rumbling sound. Invest in a quieter, more customer-friendly model. And hotel-grade flat-screen TVs equipped with programming and gaming options add a sleek, modern feel.

Don’t wait for an economic rebound. Get ahead of the game now by calling MDM Lodging at 800-673-0929.