How can you boost operational efficiency in a hospice organization? Generally, you need to enhance patient care while reducing time, labor, supplies, or costs. While you might think major equipment expenses or far-reaching investment strategies are behind most of your operational inefficiencies, the tiny, often-overlooked mistakes create the real problems.
Durable medical equipment (DME) management mistakes can seem like minor oversights, but running durable medical equipment for hospice involves more than just ordering and delivering equipment and supplies. It's about addressing hospice patients' needs and improving their care and quality of life.
It involves managing contracts, negotiating prices, organizing equipment, and auditing. Problems in these areas, combined with carelessness and wasted time, can increase staff workloads and drive up costs.
Learning to spot the hidden challenges in DME management and building a system and strategy to improve them can make all the difference. Here's what you need to know.
The most significant issues contributing to hospice DME inefficiencies often stem from limited vendor access, unreliable deliveries, billing errors, and a lack of proactive problem-solving.
Building successful business partnerships takes effort, so it's tempting to stick with one DME vendor once you've found one you trust. However, at some point, every supplier experiences DME shortages, shipping delays, and equipment unavailability.
Without access to multiple suppliers, you may struggle to provide DME to your patients on time, leading to poor patient outcomes, treatment delays, and, ultimately, lost revenue.
Unreliable or delayed deliveries are another major hurdle. Time is of the essence in hospice patient care. Patients are often dealing with acute suffering and may not have much time left. Waiting for critical devices only intensifies their pain, leading to poor quality of life and stress on the patients, families, and caregivers.
Inefficient ordering systems, slow shipping, or manual processes can push deliveries beyond acceptable timelines. Each instance not only results in gaps, added costs, and potential suboptimal care outcomes, but distances you from the core goal — to provide a DME solution that prioritizes dignity and timeliness during such a painful process for families.
DME billing errors are common for various reasons, such as missing documentation and signatures, data entry mistakes, or coding errors. These issues impact your revenue by leading to delayed or incorrect payments.
Submitting claims to the wrong insurer may also result in overcharges or false claims. Repeated mistakes could be perceived as fraud, putting your business at financial and legal risk.
A lack of long-term vision, commitment to planning, and failure to proactively address potential problems leads to business instability. Instead of spotting trends and addressing issues before they escalate into crises, you become reactive — constantly putting out fires. This approach is chaotic, wastes time and money, and adds stress to the workplace.
To improve DME management and avoid common pitfalls, focus on implementing key hospice cost-saving strategies from the get-go. Establishing a broad vendor network from over 900 DME providers, integrating your electronic medical records (EMR) with ordering systems, monitoring vendor performance, and consolidating your invoicing can all boost hospice operations optimization.
Vendor flexibility allows you to adjust to changes in demand, industry conditions, and disruptions. The more expansive or flexible your vendor network, the fewer interruptions and delays you'll face. With the right strategy, you could save up to 25% in non-formulary costs.
To prevent getting stuck with limited options or dealing with slow deliveries, create a structured strategy that includes signed contracts, negotiated prices, and tools for seamlessly shifting between vendors. This way, you'll control costs and maintain access to the right equipment, ensuring quick orders and deliveries.
Manual data entry is a significant source of billing mistakes. It's easy to mix up codes, enter incorrect patient information, or input the wrong shipping address when switching between systems. It also creates extra work, as you end up entering information twice.
Integrating your EMR software with a DME ordering solution eliminates these issues. The system automatically pulls the relevant patient data, simplifying the process and improving accuracy.
Solutions with reporting, vendor tracking features, and real-time order updates are essential for proactive management. They help identify problems early, such as modified or delayed orders. Reports also highlight vendors who frequently lack equipment, are late with deliveries, or face accreditation issues. These tools, combined with a DME partner who can negotiate contracts and handle relevant issues, will improve your supply chain.
Invoicing delays can stress your revenue cycle. Automating your billing and audits helps you quickly identify and correct mistakes, speeding up invoicing. In fact, automation can save up to 40 hours per week in DME-related administrative tasks. A system that consolidates all hospice charges into one monthly invoice can improve your cash flow and simplify operations.
Common snags can derail your DME management process. The Qualis DME ordering and tracking solution integrates with your electronic medical records, allowing you to access a broad vendor network, automate invoicing, and track deliveries and vendor performance.
Save time with rapid mobile ordering, control costs, and offload repetitive admin tasks using Qualis. Try our free DME evaluation to see how your hospice is doing.