I just finished four months of physical therapy.
The experience was eye-opening. Not the therapy itself (thankfully that turned out to be successful), but how much I learned about how little most people know about HME.
We've all recognized that the government's legislators and regulators don't seem to understand much about this industry or how it works, and even less about the products and services it offers. We also know that physicians are largely unaware of the vast array of home medical equipment available to their patients. But during physical therapy, I discovered just how pervasive this lack of knowledge is among consumers.
Because my treatment went on for a while, I saw the same patients often. We were sort of like an early morning club. We came to know each others' names and the diverse nature of the ailments we were there to mend. Our group included athletes with sports injuries, accident victims, some recuperating from hospital stays and a few with other assorted conditions.
One of my new friends was dealing with a knee replacement. In her early 70s, she was having a great deal of difficulty relearning balance, and in sitting down and getting up. She had not been in a bathtub since her operation for fear she would fall or not be able to get back out of it, and she needed help in toileting.
Naturally when I heard her problems, I told her about some of the products that could help. She was amazed to learn of even the simplest solutions like a bath bench or a raised toilet seat, and none of the medical professionals she had seen had mentioned them.
Of course her goal was to be able to accomplish these daily activities on her own, and she was working hard at it. But she was happy to learn that, in the meantime, she would not need help to get up off the toilet, and that there was a way she could get in and out of the tub without injury to herself or her eighty-something husband, who she said was helping her “with everything.”
The fact is that there is a tremendous role you can play in educating not only the referral sources you call on but also your patients, not to mention a potential profit.
My friend with the new knee was not alone. Many of the patients I met needed home medical products, and they were actively looking for advice. They wanted to know where they could find out about what was available to help, and they wanted to know where they could buy these products (as in, they didn't care whether their insurance would cover the costs or not). They simply wanted to make things easier for themselves and their caregivers at home, and they were willing to pay for anything that would.
Based on the experience with my little physical therapy club, it's obvious that the next time you are filling an order for a walker or a wheelchair, you could do a great service by finding out a bit more about your patient's home circumstances. Just see whether there are any additional products you can offer that might help.
Even if you are successful only half of the time, think about the difference you could make in those patients' daily lives — and, with the sale of those additional products, on your bottom line.
