Doing the Right Thing

Lee Conn, president of Birmingham, Ala.-based MediRest, calls it karma. “For every little thing we've done when no one's looking, we have without fail been rewarded tenfold with something good happening to us. It's karma; when we do the right thing, the right thing gets done for us.”

For the 10-year-old company, doing the right things means being staffed completely by clinicians, thinking of patients' needs first — and how to pay for those needs dead last. That could sound like a risky business proposition for some, but according to Conn, it's a “no-brainer.”

“We realized that HME was and is one segment of health care that is not traditionally delivered by clinicians. We had a problem with that and set out to raise the bar for HME providers and clients by offering clinical solutions to medical equipment problems.”

According to Conn, it was clear that by hiring mostly clinicians, “our staff would be comprised of patient advocates rather than traditional salespeople. It seems like a no-brainer now, but when we first started offering an outcomes-based wound healing program headed by a CETN/WOCN RN, clinicians to go out and measure wheelchairs with digital pressure mapping capability and clinicians to fit all orthotics, we were met with a lot of raised eyebrows.”

Conn explains what he sees as his company's difference. “We find that most of our competitors operate under a cookie-cutter formula where a customer service representative with little or no medical training will take a referral for a wheelchair, for example.

“The only clinical questions the CSR might ask will generally be ‘How tall is she and how much does she weigh?’ Obviously, that is about 5 percent of what you need to accurately fit a wheelchair … Then another employee, maybe a driver without any medical training, will select a chair from stock, drop it off at the patient's home and — good luck with it!

“In this scenario, no health care professional is involved with the provision of health care benefits to this patient. Maybe the chair might be perfect and will serve the [patient's needs], but maybe not.

However, Conn continues, “that will be the only chair the patient will get for at least five years, so it is important to find out about any pertinent medical history like skin integrity problems, seating and potential positioning issues, caregiver status and home environment.”