Time to Remove Your Bulletproof Vest

These are not just tough times, these are dire times. I started working in the health care industry 37 years ago, and I have never witnessed more serious challenges. With our industry under siege, I think prosecuted-and-found-guilty criminals are getting a better rap than we are. We keep fighting the war, but when will anyone in Washington listen? Maybe when their mothers need oxygen and they will be asked to come to the store and pick it up themselves. Oh, and be sure to arrive before 5 p.m. as we can’t stay open a minute longer.

We have audits that can quickly force a business into closure, bidding allowed by companies that previously have never demonstrated expertise in delivering certain products and reimbursement cuts that defy an understanding of what it costs to provide HME products and services. Salespeople should be wearing bulletproof vests to work and never take them off, as it appears the hits are coming from all directions.

Apparently the great work we have done for the past 30 years is going unnoticed and unrecognized.

I spent many years directing one of the largest discharge planning operations in the country in a facility with more than 1,350 beds operating at 100 percent occupancy. If not for the expertise of home care professionals with their ability to work rapidly in delivering medical equipment to the home, the skills of home care agencies to take care of very sick patients needing home IV treatments and continuous dressing changes, I personally would have witnessed the spending of millions of dollars of unnecessary insurance money.

The home care companies on my team allowed the hospital to free up beds for patients waiting days for care as well as reducing hospital costs for thousands of patients through their services. How is it possible decision-makers don’t understand the value of home care, what it takes to do what we do or even the simplest fact: Home care saves more money than any available resource in the industry.

The American College of Nursing Schools has projected the need for 260,000 nurses by 2025. The average cost of an emergency room visits presently exceeds $1,000. According to research, the average cost per day in a hospital is now estimated at $5,200. Sounds like the home care alternative is an excellent option to consider.

Here Are the Facts

Since I have focused on sales training for so many years and helping you to focus on an appropriate sales message, I am sure I am at least a part of the problem. I should have been helping to inform others about this industry’s value. Now we must all be more aggressive in reaching out to our industry colleagues, our referral sources and our patients. They need to know all that we know about the home medical equipment industry’s financial impact on the health care picture as a whole.

Look at the accompanying listing, which shows the average length of stay and charges per patient for hospitals by region of the United States published last year.

While the average length of stay is relatively short, the charges make it clear: For many, home care is a cost-effective alternative offering quality care by a certified provider in a home environment.

While we have not pushed our sales message beyond the usual envelope, it’s time to more aggressively “sell” home care. Our focus has been only on reaching out to immediate and potential customers, but our message now must be directed toward the public. You can do this by:

• Developing a brief in-service that will address the average cost of a day in the hospital and the role home medical equipment (and your company) can play in decreasing just one day of hospitalization.
• Developing a program that helps referral sources understand the home care option. It may be the best and most cost-effective alternative to residence in a long-term care or assisted living facility.
• Offering to be a presenter at conferences coordinated by local social service agencies or professional gatherings where you can address the financial, clinical and emotional benefits of HME products and services.
• Looking for opportunities to be a part of any staff orientation program (such as at a hospital, social service organization or senior center) or to provide materials informing potential referral sources about the value of home care.

As you sell the value of home care and all of its components, you can also:

• Reach out to senior groups in your community with a short program reviewing the products and services you offer.
• Become part of an educational series presenting programs at assisted living facilities about what HME can do to improve the quality of life of all residents.
• Become involved in medical education seminars and programs directed at the future professionals who will be joining the ranks as physicians, physical therapists, social workers and respiratory therapists, etc.

If we don’t take more aggressive steps to talk about HME’s important role in the health care industry as much as we have historically talked about the services and products we offer, then our impact will continue to be limited.

Put Your Impact Down on Paper

Before moving forward with a plan for developing your message, you need to complete an internal review of your own impact. For example, are you prepared to write an article for the local newspaper or a letter to your congressman detailing the contributions of your company to the local community?

Providers also need to enhance the HME “research department,” since this is one area where most are severely lacking. We need the data and documentation about the services we provide to defend ourselves so we can take off those bulletproof vests.

Your research for the future should begin to answer such questions as:

• During the past year, how many discharged hospital patients have you helped by allowing them to reduce the number of days they would have spent in a hospital?
• How many patients during a specified period of time have you helped with oxygen services, allowing them to continue to be active members of the community?
• How many customers have purchased grab bars for their home, helping them manage and live in a safe environment?
• How many weekend calls do you respond to regarding oxygen issues that would normally have been handled by the local hospital emergency room or ambulance service?

Discharge planners, case managers and continuity of care professionals should be our greatest and most effective allies. As you present the value of HME to others, write the stories of the money you save and share the data on your impact, these professionals should be standing beside you. Many of us work with them daily. In fact, they may be our most effective salespeople.

The selling of our message must come from all fronts. The challenges we face today will not end; they have been in the forefront all the years I have worked in this industry. When people pay for services built upon documentation rather than observation, there will continue to be a home for the unscrupulous.

But our team of supporters must continue to grow, and we can make that happen by building an arsenal of internal data and creating a team of external warriors who understand our value, our operation and our impact. As a former social worker and case manager, I hope you will reach out to my colleagues beyond those in the home care arena.

Wearing a bulletproof vest can be very hot. We need a break from playing defense as we continue to change the lives of those we touch.

Since it’s football season, I’ll phrase my message in those terms: Everyone gets a chance to be on the offense, and no one in the health care industry scores more goals for patients than we do. Unfortunately, we may not yet have the scoreboard numbers to prove it. But the data is there for those who will comb the field for that valuable information.

Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. You can reach him through www.DynamicSeminars.com or at 954/435-8182.