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.