Cape Medical embraces WFH

SANDWICH, Mass. - Cape Medical Supply made the decision to take its operations remote early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Ninety percent of Cape Medical's employees were working from home in March, says CEO Gary Sheehan.

“We went really far, really early,” he said. “Our volume is good; we're shipping new set ups. We have a 16,0000-square-foot building with seven people, and a skeleton team in the warehouse managing resupplies.”

It helped that Cape Medical already had systems in place to ease the transition, with VOIP phone and scalable web-based SaaS systems, and has used online meeting software for years, says Sheehan.

“Whether it's phone, billing, email and chats—all those things were already in place to work from anywhere,” he said. “Just because someone lives elsewhere doesn't mean they can't work for us.”

Case in point: Mike Sheehan, COO, is based in North Carolina, and Kevin Sheehan, director of MyResupply and PAP Replenishment Programs, is based in Nevada.

Company culture also plays a role in being able to successfully implement remote work on a large scale, says Sheehan. He describes Cape Medical as a company that's process-oriented, with everything defined and documented, and that has leadership and management that can motivate and rally employees in an unnerving situation.

It's also important to trust employees to get their work done and understand there's nothing normal about the current situation, says Sheehan, whose young son was doing fractions in another room while Sheehan worked.

“We're not auditing keystrokes or monitoring call queues,” he said. “I understand people have lives and there's a lot going on. I'm really proud of the way our folks have reacted in a dangerous situation.”