Conserve Your Cash

Home care providers specializing in respiratory services face daunting challenges in today's marketplace. Not only are they trying to cope with oxygen reimbursement cuts, they must also wrestle with the prospect of accreditation requirements and concerns about competitive bidding.

Add to these worries the daily concerns about patient care and the constant pressure of running a business. Is it any wonder that opportunities are easy to miss?

I spent several years handling purchasing for one of the country's national home care companies. As a buyer, I was responsible for selecting from a broad array of both respiratory products and durable medical equipment. It wasn't possible to focus on every single item we bought. There were too many vendors and not enough time. Triage was the order of the day.

Now I look back on my days in purchasing and wonder what I missed. Oxygen conserving devices are a case in point. These devices accounted for a small percentage of our capital expenditures. We spent millions on sleep-related products, oxygen systems, beds and wheelchairs. Relatively speaking, conservers were small potatoes.

Admittedly, I am chagrined by the fact that I should have paid closer attention to oxygen conserving devices. I never realized how much this relatively inexpensive item impacts patient care and the cost of doing business. What I have since learned in conversation with other home care providers is that many who are much closer to the day-to-day business than I ever was are in the same boat, incurring unnecessary costs and mostly for the same reason: They have bigger fish to fry.

Yet, a closer look at conservers reveals how much is at stake in three key areas :

• Cost of doing business
• Clinical efficacy
• Patient satisfaction

BUSINESS COSTS

Beyond the price of the conserver itself, the variance in the ancillary cost of using a particular conserver can be surprising. For example, if you are using conservers that require dual lumen cannulas, you could be spending anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000 more a year for every 100 oxygen patients you serve. Simply put, dual lumen cannulas cost a lot more than single lumen cannulas.