Article Summary: Durable Medical Equipment (DME) plays a significant role in patient care following a hospital discharge or due to a debilitating chronic condition. OneHome’s value-based care model addresses the challenges associated with DME experienced by referring providers and patients. This comprehensive and coordinated approach helps ensure timely equipment delivery and proper training, as well as ongoing follow-up with an emphasis on empathy and support during the patient’s transition to in-home care.
When a patient is discharged from the hospital, their post-acute care can require significant coordination of services including home health, medication treatments, physical therapy and various types of medical equipment to support their recovery at home.
Durable medical equipment (DME) can play a vital role in helping patients heal at home after a hospitalization, as well as for long-term use by patients with chronic conditions, disabilities and mobility issues. While these in-home tools can assist in improving patient health and their quality of life, referring providers and patients may encounter challenges related to the prescribing and utilization of DME. However, a value-based care model that includes coordination of DME services, in conjunction with other in-home health needs, can help relieve those difficulties, as well as enhance patient care and reduce healthcare costs.
The need for DME has been surging in recent years, with several factors driving that sharp increase, including an aging population. The number of Americans 65 and older grew nearly 40% from 2010 to 2020 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That demographic shift also means more age-related chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and respiratory conditions that often require the use of DME to effectively manage and monitor the disease. Add to that a greater interest and adoption of in-home care that quickly accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and has made more complex DME, including ventilators, available to patients in their homes.
Timely delivery of the appropriate equipment and proper patient training is essential to the health and well-being of the patient. But, a burdensome and complicated process involving complex insurance approval procedures, lack of standardization and variability in the quality of equipment, and communication and coordination gaps between DME suppliers, healthcare providers and insurers, can delay the receipt of equipment and inhibit its proper use.
Addressing DME challenges with value-based care
OneHome’s value-based, patient-centered approach, offered in certain areas of the country, reduces those obstacles by taking on the responsibility of supplying the DME, training the patient and caregivers in its use, monitoring and reporting patient progress and resolving any insurance claim issues. Since OneHome coordinates a range of a patient’s in-home service needs, including in-home clinical care, there is far more collaboration between the different providers when it comes to the patient’s utilization of DME.
“Because we work in partnership with the patient’s physician, we know the individual’s diagnosis and have a full understanding of their health status which helps tremendously in ensuring that the right DME is ordered and delivered as soon as the patient needs it, as well as monitoring and communicating their progress with their other health practitioners,” said Norman McGee, Senior Vice President for OneHome’s DME Operations. “OneHome also coordinates all other necessary services to support the optimal use of the equipment and management of their condition, such as respiratory therapy for those using oxygen or CPAPs,”.
The critical role of empathy and support
Educating and training patients, relatives and other caregivers is essential for ensuring the safety, usability and effectiveness of DME. Improper understanding and use of the equipment can potentially cause harm to the patient. However, those responsible for DME delivery, set up and training frequently interact with the patient at a vulnerable time when providing empathy and comfort is also part of their job.
The Patient Care Technician is often the first to meet with a patient and their caregivers once discharged from the hospital and in need of DME. Coming to grips with the reality that they will be dependent on one or more pieces of medical equipment for a period of time or possibly the foreseeable future, can be emotionally fraught. That initial interaction is critical in helping the patient overcome their fears and anxieties and educating them on the use of the DME as a tool that can improve their health and quality of life.
“It’s not just about delivering and setting up a piece of equipment. It may require taking time to listen and comfort the patient, and sometimes family members, until they’re ready to absorb information on how to use an oxygen tank or insulin pump,” said Gene Southwick, Vice President of DME Operations at OneHome. “The OneHome DME team is focused on offering empathy and emotional support, along with the training patients need to successfully use the equipment.”
By streamlining processes, enhancing coordination and emphasizing patient education and ongoing support, OneHome’s value-based care model addresses many of the challenges associated with DME and, by doing so, can contribute to improved patient outcomes and their quality of life.