SANDWICH, MA – This year’s Medtrade Conference was a showcase of the latest products and offerings in the HME field. For us, it was a whirlwind couple of days.
One takeaway from Medtrade is that telehealth is here, and it is not going anywhere. As hospitals and doctor’s offices look to drive down costs across the board, more and more patients are being asked to heal in their own homes. This is a nice thought, but it brings with it a host of complications—namely, how do you keep track of patients and make sure they’re keeping up with their care?
The answer is technology. Remote monitoring, and the ability to data mine everything about a single patient, has made more home therapies possible than ever before.
We already practice telehealth in our CPAP division, and this just reinforces everything we’ve seen. Sleep apnea is one that fits particularly well with this directive, because it can be easily managed on the home front given the proper training and technology.
Telehealth allows DME companies to more effectively service a larger number of patients, and it allows our staff to focus on the care itself, rather than spending valuable time in transit to and from patients’ houses, or deciphering paper charts.
The effective use of software, whether it’s managing patients, checking inventory, eliminating billing snafus, or setting technician schedules, is quickly becoming a determining factor between success and failure in the HME industry. We saw more new software offerings this year at Medtrade than we ever have in the past.
It makes sense. The less paper we have to deal with, the more parts of the discharge and ordering process we can automate, the faster we can get the proper care to our patients.
We see this as being in keeping with our goal to be seen as partners to health care systems—not vendors. When we operate on the same level of technological sophistication as large health care systems, it’s a lot easier to collaborate on truly innovative and improved solutions, rather than simply just fulfilling orders.
Gary Sheehan, MBA, is owner of Cape Medical Supply, Sandwich, Mass, with additional locations in Canton, Mass, and Kittery, Me. He is also chairman of the board for the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
of the board for the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce – See more at:
https://medtrade.com/news/manufacturer-provider/I-Am-the-HME-Industr-1626.shtml?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=44269516&utm_term=8333315&utm_content=#sthash.dTiWcAoX.dpuf
of Cape Medical Supply, Sandwich, Mass, with locations in Canton, Mass,
and Kittery, Me – See more at:
https://medtrade.com/news/manufacturer-provider/I-Am-the-HME-Industr-1626.shtml?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=44269516&utm_term=8333315&utm_content=#sthash.dTiWcAoX.dpuf