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MedSun Provides Another Source of Customer Feedback for HARD Manufacturing, Inc.

It’s pretty simple for HARD Manufacturing, America’s leading maker of hospital cribs: “If you don’t listen - and react - to what your customers are saying about your product, you don’t stay in business.”
“That’s the biggest source of innovation, a customer saying, `Hey, can you do this?’”, says HARD Manufacturing President William N. Godin.
HARD seeks that customer feedback after every purchase, calling customers one month and then a year after the sale. It seeks feedback through consultations with doctors and nurses. And now MedSun provides another source of valuable input.
It was through the MedSun program that HARD became aware that some customers felt the need for more concise and visible instructions on raising and lowering the sides and ends of cribs.
Years ago, HARD responded to the needs of medical professionals who raise and lower crib sides multiple times during a day by designing their cribs to meet federal OSHA standards and minimize the possibility of repetitive strain and other injuries.
But parents are interacting more frequently with their children while they are in the crib, and the parents may not fully understand how to raise and lower the sides of the cribs. This may be one reason our customers have requested improved instructions on how to raise and lower the sides.
To address our customers’ request, HARD will now supply each crib with a laminated card featuring simplified instructions, in easy-to-understand language, for the proper operation of the sides and ends.
Additional labels will also now be attached to the rails, explaining how to lower the sides using the lift-then-squeeze handle, and how to lift them using two hands.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission mandates that two distinct motions must be used to lower a crib’s sides. More than 40 years ago, HARD designed the Johns Hopkins Handle, which must be lifted, then squeezed, before a crib side can be lowered.
“We want parents and caregivers to know how to properly lower the sides for maximum access to kids - and how to properly raise them for the peace of mind a secured crib provides,” Godin said.
All of the new labels will be available free of charge to facilities with HARD cribs that want them by calling 1-800-873-4273.
HARD’s cribs already feature a number of health, safety, and comfort innovations. Please visit our website at www.hardmfg.com to learn more about these features.
“The product just continually gets better and some of the reason for that is input from customers and patients,” Godin said. “We’re glad to add the MedSun system as a partner in our efforts to provide the kind of high quality product that has made HARD cribs the industry standard.”

MedSun is a pilot project lunched in 2002
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health. MedSun consits of a group of hospitals and nursing homes working collaboratively with the FDA in order to identify, understand, and share information about problems with the use of medical devices, as well as cells and tissues.

Hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities are currently required to report medical device problems under the Safe Medical Device Act using the MedWatch 3500A form. MedSun provides a secure, Internet based, data entry system that automates this process and helps gather additional data that can help FDA, device manufacturers, and clinical facilities proactively address safety concerns.

MedSun plays an important role in FDA's postmarket surveilliance effort. Since 2005, the network has included approximately 350 health care facilities. For additional information about the project please visit MedSun Web site: www.medsun.net