2015 HME Handbook
How to Ensure You Maximize Your HME Software Investment
HME-specific software has brought revolutionary change to the industry, but is it time for early adopters to review their systems?
Over the past several years, software and information technology have evolved into critical elements in HME business management — and for good reason. Information is a tool, and perhaps the best tool, for insulating an HME provider business from the difficult funding environment that CMS has created. But the question is, are providers getting the most from their information technology investments?
IT-savvy providers use inventory innovations such as barcoding and automatic reordering to ensure that they have just the right supply of key DME items, while not filling up the warehouse with expensive equipment that winds up collecting dust and costing money. They can use GPS and smart route planning to better manage their delivery and technician fleets to ensure they minimize cost while maximizing timeliness and responsiveness. Providers can also set up “dashboard” views that let them view key business and operation performance metrics at a glance to ensure each department is performing adequately, and use reporting tools to determine why, if they are not.
But for all the features and innovations that HME software offerings have brought to the industry, the key issue for any provider when it comes to their software is whether or not they have the right software. A provider might have installed a system five years ago and has been very happy with it, but is it maximizing that investment? Have new features been added that the provider hasn’t exploited? Moreover, what if the provider has big business plans that will unfold over the next few years; will the software support those changes? Let’s take a look at how to maximize your software investment:
Start with Process
As the saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. The provider should analyze workflows and processes, and see how the software infrastructure is serving those workflows, as well as making them more efficient. Know what staff members are doing daily to see if processes in the software can provide a better, more efficient solution. Providers should get input from their software vendor to discuss how software can provide solutions to reduce manual effort and better control HME business operations.
Know Your Software
How well do you truly know your software? Are you up-to-date with the current release? Providers should take the time to regularly review the list of options and features offered by their software and ensure that staff is educated on key features to support their daily processes. As a software vendor offers new releases, thoroughly review each the release notes for each update. Doing this will ensure that you are taking advantage of updates and keeping current on your application’s feature offering as it expands. Also, get a dialog going with your software vendor’s representative so that you can provide feedback. Vendors do listen to users because in the same way providers want to offer great patient service, they want to offer great software. Talk to your rep about industry or market changes and how the software could help you. This will help your vendor ensure that software enhancements are prioritized appropriately for your and other providers’ needs.
Know Your Vendor
A good vendor of any business software, including HME offerings, will offer considerable support to its customers. Your vendor should offer online curriculum and instructor-led classes held in a variety of regional locations. Likewise, your vendor should provide an online community that shares information via message boards and similar media so that business peers can help each other and leverage shared experience. Last, but not least, your should have a solid relationship with your account representative so that lets you depend on that person (or team) as a key resource for getting the most out of your investment.
Learn Best Practices
An effective way to learn if you are getting the most from your software, as well as whether or not your software is offering all the features it should is to sit down and talk with some of your industry peers and find out what they’re doing with their software. In addition to any groups that your software vendor might offer, take advantage of a trade show or state association meeting to speak with other HME providers to find out what kind of software they are using to streamline their processes and automate processes and ask them how satisfied they are with it. If they are using the same software as you, find out what innovative ways they are using their software to tackle business challenges and find new efficiencies.
Regularly Compare
Software can get out of date. Ensure that IT staff are reviewing software usage on a yearly basis and comparing the currently installed system to what’s on the market. Is the current system keeping pace with industry changes? Is it offering all the features it should? Will it scale well and adapt to future change? For instance, if the provider has a client-server system installed, it might want to examine a cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology if it is expecting future interoperability challenges (for instance, a merger or acquisition might be in the cards).
Points to Take Away:
- Software has been a key investment for HME providers for nearly a decade, because it helps them manage change and challenges, as well as grow their businesses.
- However, while providers might have seen solid benefits from a software investment they made several years ago, are they getting the most out of their investment today.
- A good place to start is by examining business processes and seeing if the company is using the software as much as it can to benefit those processes; get employees involved.
- Also the provider should have a solid relationship with its vendors, as well as peers to ensure it is staying on top of update and maximizing its investment.
- The provider should also regularly review what’s available on the market to see what’s available for current and future needs.
Learn More:
This article originally appeared in the June 2015 issue of HME Business.