The Marketplace Squirrel Operates in
The healthcare market is divided into a number of key sectors. Each sector provides sales opportunities for Squirrel Medical to increase its market penetration. There are eight defined areas in which Squirrel intends to operate:
Direct distribution
More and more people are preferring domestic care in their own home rather than institutionalised nursing homes. With a greater understanding of pressure ulcers, there is a greater emphasis on prevention rather than cure.
In excess of 250,000 occupational therapists advise people on suitable medical equipment to enable them to live independently and safely within their own homes. In most cases these occupational therapists will access equipment from loan stores (see loan stores). This means that their opinion with regards product and service carries great weight.
However the huge numbers of elderly people coupled with government cut backs means that there is often insufficient or inadequate product available. This often results in the client purchasing the product directly from the supplier.
An increasing number of individuals are accessing new methods of medical equipment acquisition this includes direct purchase. With some this option is arrived at from choice, in others it is brought on by perceived necessity. Individuals of financial means and those worried about the risks of cross infection prefer to buy there own equipment rather than borrow or hire equipment which has been used by others before. Others, feeling that the perceived inadequacies of health and social care are unable to meet the needs of them and their loved ones believe that “going it alone” is the only option left open to them.
Direct purchase of equipment includes the use of the internet to source product. Some people utilise Disabled Living Centres, which are in effect permanent exhibitions displaying a range of independent living product. The customer is expected to purchase the product direct from one of several suppliers.
In excess of 3145 registered home care agencies provide basic domiciliary nursing care to the estimated 240,000 people receiving care within their own homes. Most of these agencies are private and connected / affiliated to a local care home.
Informal care providers, individual patients and relatives will invariably be accessing the internet for information of disease conditions as well as direct product information.
On accessing the web, the information currently available on pressure damage is mainly geared for the health care professional market. These are composed predominantly by journal articles and research pieces on disease aetiology and prevalence. This information is crucial for many professionals but tends to be used for further study and research. It gives little assistance in selecting appropriate equipment.
The information for informal carers is therefore very limited, and yet the individuals from this group who request this subject will invariably be the ones likely to go on and purchase equipment.
The style of the website page is therefore pivotal in targeting both healthcare professionals, (who wish to be made aware of generic pressure damage information, the company and its product range) and the informal carers who wish to understand the issue of pressure damage in relation to themselves/their loved ones and who may be wishing to source products to manage the problem.
Squirrel Medical are the first manufacturer of pressure relieving air mattresses to specifically design dynamic mattresses for specific illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Cerebral Palsy. The company works closely with members of the Spinal Injuries Association, MS Society and Disabled Living Foundation.
The requirements of independent living terms of dynamic airflow mattresses tend to be different to those within the secondary sector. Some people whilst being susceptible to pressure ulcers will otherwise live normal active lives and often undertake independent and / or assisted transfer to a walker or wheelchair. The assistant is often a carer, sometimes a loved one or friend. It is therefore critical that stability of the mattress is sound (see Squirrel Diamond) so that the air chambers do not allow the patient to slip to the floor during wheelchair or walker transfer.
Some persons, that suffer from sore skin rather than pressure sores (the former often being the start of an ulcer) would prefer to avoid the use of a dynamic air mattress. Squirrel therefore produce the travel flow which is an air mattress that fits a standard divan bed.
