Future-Proofing Your Hospice with Strategic DME Management

Hospice care has faced significant upheaval as the healthcare industry tries to recover from the pandemic and economic stress. Labor shortages, rising costs, low reimbursements, and mounting regulatory pressure have squeezed hospice providers. 

As a result, some businesses have closed or merged, while others have had to rethink their operations. Meanwhile, patients expect higher quality care, making attention to every detail essential. The way forward involves new approaches to almost every business area, including creating strategic DME management plans. 

Why Strategic DME Management Matters

Given the changing hospice landscape, business as usual is no longer an option. Agencies must carry out careful planning to adapt. Strategic DME management benefits your agency with workload shifts, budgeting, and patient outcomes.

Shifts Workloads

DME is a vital component of hospice care, and how you manage your supply directly impacts your daily operations. A carefully designed plan offloads repetitive and tedious tasks from your nursing team, allowing them to focus on meaningful patient care rather than data entry, repeat requests, or correcting errors. 

With good strategic DME management, your nurses no longer need to cross-check varying equipment names, map product numbers or parts, or handle equipment setup. Instead, advanced software simplifies ordering and works directly with your patient files to relieve nurses of these duties and allow them to focus on nursing.

Influences Budgeting

A strategic plan reduces unnecessary time and labor costs. Integrating technology into your process, for example, can automate invoicing and audits and improve your billing and cash flow. Together, these elements create a leaner DME management system with lower costs, fewer wasted resources, more room in your budget, and better cost or profit margins. With the right software, your agency could save up to 25% on non-formulary items. 

Shapes Patient Outcomes

A recent study found that about 15% of adults with disabilities reported not receiving or experiencing delays in DME over 12 months. Among them, one in four said equipment was unavailable because of a supply shortage, affecting vital tools like breathing devices, mobility aids, and diabetes equipment and supplies. These shortages can significantly impact patient health and quality of life.

A strategic DME approach helps you avoid these common challenges by ensuring timely access to necessary equipment, allowing you to prioritize patient needs and care. The result is improved care management and better patient outcomes. 

Key Elements of a Future-Proof DME Plan

Three essential elements can make the difference for a better DME hospice strategy: vendor flexibility, proactive support, and integrated technology.

Flexibility

Vendor flexibility is key to avoiding DME delays and shortages. The more access you have to a selection of DME suppliers, the better positioned you are to secure the equipment your patients need, especially for last-minute needs. 

While some businesses believe a smaller network helps you build better relationships and contracts, a broad supply network guarantees you always meet your patients' requirements. You're also better able to respond to industry shifts and market fluctuations that often pop up.

Proactive Support

Troubleshooting equipment or vendor issues is time-consuming and labor-intensive. A good DME plan should include proactive support to minimize disruptions. Ideally, work with a DME partner who negotiates directly with vendors and offers reporting features to spot trends and potential issues early, allowing you to adjust before problems arise.  

Synced Technology

A centralized system that integrates your EMR with an ordering platform is vital. Toggling between disconnected tools wastes time and increases the risks of errors in data entry, ordering, coding, and billing. With synced tech, you can simplify workflows, auto-populate orders with patient data, automate invoicing, and receive real-time updates. The result is an orderly process that can adapt to changes.

The Role of a Trusted DME Partner

A DME partner helps you future-proof hospice care with multi-vendor management, easy ordering, and custom solutions for better equipment supply. 

Vendor Management

A DME partner simplifies your ordering and management process, taking care of the details so you can focus on your hospice operations and patient care. A partner like Qualis builds relationships with multiple vendors (over 900 suppliers) and negotiates contracts with attractive pricing. Qualis handles the behind-the-scenes details of supply chains and costs, simplifying your DME plan. 

Easy Ordering

With the right DME partner, ordering becomes effortless. Qualis offers custom tools, including an intuitive ordering platform and business management services, to help you build long-term DME solutions. You can integrate ordering software with your EMR, place quick orders, track delivery status, chat with vendors through secure messaging, and cut DME admin tasks by up to 40 hours a week. 

Preparing for What's Next

Staying ahead of challenges means prioritizing DME planning with smart tools and expert DME partners for enhanced vendor flexibility, easy ordering, and better cost control. Let's build a plan for the future. Contact Qualis today to see how strategic DME management can help your hospice thrive.