How to Establish Your Business as a Home Accessibility Authority

• By Joseph Duffy
• Jul 01, 2011

The need for patient home accessibility services has grown exponentially. It is an expanding market that leaves providers with opportunities to serve a growing population while increasing revenue recently usurped by cuts, caps and competitive bidding.

Boomers have just started entering into the DME space and with 72 million obese Americans, home accessibility services are needed more than ever. But before you dive into home accessibility, make sure you understand how to become a trusted authority.

Historically, home accessibility would be viewed as putting a square peg in a round hole. Sure, if you can push hard enough you might eventually get it to work, but it might damage the peg and doesn’t fill the entire void. Following that line of thought, major portions of home accessibility can too often be overlooked and patients ends up dealing with a “piecemeal” solution with components that do not necessarily function well together.

So, the key to successful home access is to get a full picture of the entire need and see the big picture.

To be an authority on home accessibility it is crucial for a provider to to start on the outside of the home and work inward. Start by knowing what type of equipment will be used, and then look at the ramps, lifts and steps for outside entrances, which are crucial for entry and exit of the home. Giving the client the ability to get into the backyard, garage or frontyard is very important.

Once the client is inside, having a full line of products that allows for the special needs of the customer — automatic door openers, threshold ramps, widened doors, stair lifts, track lifts, and bathroom options — are also very important. Looking at the entire house and determining what is needed to make the house completely accessible is key.

Partnering with manufacturers and distributors that are authorities will aid you in becoming an authority yourself. Find out the following about manufacturers and distributors before doing business with them:

1. What tools does the manufacturer provide to help providers determine the right product for the application?
2. Does the manufacturer have a diverse enough line of products to cover most applications in the patient’s area?
3. Is the manufacturer an expert? Do they know codes, regulations, equipment, etc.?

After choosing the manufacturer and distributor, it’s time to turn your attention to the patient.

Understanding the long-term need is crucial to correctly helping patients. What may satisfy today’s requirements may not necessarily work in six months or two years. Asking questions to determine the level of independence that patients want to achieve, if their condition will change over time, if a caregiver will always be present, are all questions that help determine the best solution. There is no worse solution than one that only fixes a small part of the problem and has to be corrected or changed in the future.

In many cases visiting a patient’s home is imperative to being a home accessibility authority. Asking patients to explain what they need is assuming that they themselves are the experts. And if they are the experts, then they simply do not need you.

To establish itself as an expert, a provider should conduct a full assessment with the patient in the home. That will reap large rewards and will truly set the HME on a course of satisfying the customer’s real needs.

Once you understand what it takes to be a home accessibility authority, it’s time to market your services. Success stories, pictures and testimonials are very good tools in marketing yourself. Additionally, having a showroom that can be used to show or demonstrate the accessibility tools will lead to success. Including tips or recommendations in newsletters or other marketing pieces will demonstrate the level of knowledge that accentuates authority.

It is essential to have experts on staff, and that expertise can be learned from the strategic partnerships that you have developed with manufacturers. It is not necessary to have expertise on staff in the form of craftsmen — having the electrician that can do the wiring for a lift is not necessary to have on staff. Having the knowledge to determine what is needed in the home is necessary. Being able to assess the situation, identify the needs, offer the best solution and access the tools to fulfill the needs is pertinent.

Then, to take your home accessibility services to the next level, seek training and certification. The NAHB provides an excellent resource for training and certification, including its Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) designation. Another excellent designation is CEAC (Certified Environmental Access Consultant), administered by AHIA (Accessible Home Improvements of America). AHIA provides a wealth of tools and services, education, training, assisting in finding funding sources, and a full array of information specific to home accessibility.

Points to Remember:

• The marketplace for home access is rapidly expanding, with Baby Boomers and bariatric patients being keep drivers in that growth.
• That said, many solutions are piecemeal. Providers can gain significant marketshare by offering complete solutions.
• That requires performing a full home assessment and applying deep product knowledge.
• That requires developing the right staff expertise. That expertise can be gained from product vendors, as well as partners, such as contractors.
• Ramp up that expertise by getting special training and certification from the NAHB and the AHIA.

Learn More

• Visit our compendium of home accessibility articles and products.
• NAHB
  www.nahb.org
• AHIA
  www.accesshomeamerica.com/ceac.asp

This article originally appeared in the July 2011 issue of HME Business.