Head Office: Halifax, NS

CEO: Susan Helliwell

 

 

 

When an offshore worker or someone on a fishing crew is injured or becomes ill hundreds of kilometres away from onshore health care facilities, getting appropriate medical attention has often meant expensive air lifts or aborting a trip and heading for shore.

 

Praxes Medical Group offers an alternative option. Its emergency specialists can provide medical advice by phone and can help a crew treat and stabilize injuries, reducing trip interruptions and allowing remote operations to carry on.

 

Saving lives and minimizing downtime has earned Praxes loyal customers not only in the fishing industry but also in the navy, Coast Guard, and search and rescue circles, plus the offshore-energy sector. “Our touchstone is to help organizations improve services while decreasing overhead and risk,” says CEO Susan Helliwell. “It resonates with clients, especially because we’ve had success proving it.”

 

The company started out in 1997 providing doctor-on-call services to Nova Scotia’s burgeoning offshore industry. It diversified quickly, finding clients that tend to be recession proof.

 

Today the company prides itself on a culture of innovation. As an example, it points to software it developed to more efficiently track the medical information it was collecting. It proved to be so good for cutting administrative costs, Praxes was forced to create another company, Pii Software, to look after sales and management. The web-based service is unique in that it can operate in standalone mode in remote locations but synchronize with a network when communications allow.

 

Finding qualified paramedics, physician assistants, and medical staff can be a challenge, so Helliwell focuses on compatible benefits, financing training opportunities and giving employees a voice in the future direction of the company. Praxes never puts recruiting ads in newspapers; instead, it relies on recommendations from colleagues and clients. “And they have to like sushi,” says Helliwell, laughing. “Some companies use pizza and pop to fuel late meetings. We use sushi.”