AS YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED by the growing number of surveys we at HomeCare do each year, I am a firm believer in facts -- compiling them, studying them, interpreting them. So when the results of our second annual HME Retail Survey came in, I spent a lot of time poring over them.

In many instances, my gut feelings about the home medical equipment business were confirmed. In other cases, of course, I was dead wrong and learned a thing or two about how much revenue providers get from different sources on average, say, or how they use available space in their facilities.

But in all cases, I relish making connections between statistics and trying to figure out what they mean about the day-to-day operation of an HME company. Take the statistic we ran on this month's cover, for example. Only one-third of the providers we surveyed track their retail products by profit margin. And only one-third say they track products by inventory turnover rates, either.

This raises questions for me: How do the other two-thirds know if they're making money? Or making as much money as they could? Or stocking the right products?

The answer is, in all three cases, they don't. And, from what I understand of profit margins these days, they can't afford not to -- whether HME retailing is a core revenue stream for their businesses or just a sideline.

I have another set of questions to throw your way, inspired in part by last month's annual HME Distribution Issue: Why do providers devote as much space as they do to on-site storage? On average, the providers we surveyed have 5,246-square-foot locations and devote almost half -- 2,597 square feet -- to storage.

I can't believe storage is the best use of expensive commercial space. Yes, to operate efficiently, you need to keep some products on hand. But having too many can strangle cash flow, an all-too-precious commodity in the HME industry. And what does this say about the sophistication of the HME supply chain in this age of "just in time" manufacturing and delivery?

The industry is moving in the right direction, however. In last year's survey results (published in the May 2000 issue), the statistics show that providers devoted even more space to on-site storage -- 3,158 square feet on average.

Interestingly, this decrease can't be attributed just to an increase in drop shipping by manufacturers and distributors. From 1999 to 2000, the average amount of off-site storage -- which is probably much less expensive -- increased from 1,679 square feet to 3,572 square feet.

I could go on, but I've run out of space. So I encourage you to spend time with the results of our latest HME Retail Survey. You never know what you might learn or what hard questions the facts might pose about how carefully you're managing your business.