Lengkeek are partners of and for many organisations. Naturally of organisations linked to insurance. Our experts assist these companies so that a proper and professional settlement of claims is guaranteed to be optimal.
We were recently called in by SOVIB, who specialise in services and insurance for the healthcare sector. Our expert Ronald Oskam (NIVRE-re) can clearly remember everything about this incident.
The battery.
“We got a call from Emma Lodge. Emma works at SOVIB in the claims department. She asked us to assist SOVIB with fire damage at a healthcare facility. At the head office, from where this institution provides night care for 50 locations in the east of the country, a battery turned out to be the cause of a short circuit. This had caused a fire in the storage room.
We know from experience that old batteries are often the cause of a fire. Incidentally, even and especially in a domestic environment, the battery is often the cause. In this case, it was a collection of old batteries and accumulators. Residual voltage here caused a short circuit. The cells then caught fire.”
Ronald continued: “The fire wasn’t too severe. Of course, a fire is a terrible inconvenience. It’s often quite scary. Nobody wants a fire of any kind. For this organisation, the bigger problem was the central server room next door. A room that also housed all the spare equipment! The fire had caused all the servers to go down.
There was significant smoke and soot damage. Valuable electronic equipment had become unusable.”
Better together!
All parties involved immediately consulted in order to identify the circumstances we were facing and the options available. It turned out that, fortunately, we were able take quick action. There was close collaboration.
“The claim handling was speedy. Administratively, everything was extremely well organised. Everything was laid down to the last detail”, according to Ronald.
“Lengkeek is organised to act quickly, effectively and efficiently. Everything is digitised and automated. We’ve set the bar high in this regard for years. Things like continuous assessment, for instance, are effectively organised in our company. When something goes wrong somewhere, at any location, we can immediately determine the damage.
It is very important that parties are open and transparent towards each other. As loss adjusters, we cannot do without additional information. As mentioned, administratively everything was perfectly in order. Important documents were shared immediately.”
One less worry.
Healthcare institutions in particular depend on their computer systems. SOVIB and Lengkeek therefore prioritised the system, the network. It had to be operational again as soon as possible. This allowed daily operations at the institution were able to continue as soon as possible. Of course, we realised that this also affected people who are completely dependent. Dependent on functioning care.
“Swift and effective actions were taken. Risk management is “key” in this. The risk manager must be able to walk through the building with a critical eye, seeing what might affect crucial processes in the organisation. A good risk manager, for example, will not make the combination between residual waste on the one hand and large amounts of expensive equipment on the other. In the end, we are only concerned with one thing: to make sure people can get on with their lives again as soon as possible!”, says Ronald.
The damage turned out to be considerable. More than € 200,000. At first sight, the warehouse and server room, and the entire contents, had to be replaced. Nevertheless, it was examined whether anything could still be used. Those in charge within the healthcare organisation were willing to take financial risks, but first they looked into what the possibilities were to save money. This included cleaning equipment, for example, so that it may be reused. It turned out that some of the equipment could be cleaned. One less worry. Some of it was replaced. Waste management of batteries, among other things, was also scrutinised. That is now being done differently.
Good record keeping
So, fortunately, in the case of this fire damage the settlement went smoothly. It soon became clear that there was little to no room for discussion.
A lot depends on proactive and good record keeping. If these are in order and it saves us having to search for everything, the claim settlement will proceed quickly. What is also very important in this regard, is that extra costs, such as staffing, are tracked. This is often forgotten…
More info?
For hassle-free claims handling and/or risk management, Lengkeek is there for you!
We make sure that organisations and people can move on as soon as possible!
Send us an email or call us at: opdracht@lengkeek.nl or 088 – 554 00 00.
We will be happy to be at your service.