Provider Perspective
Roberts Home Medical Welcomes Japanese Home Care Visitors
On Oct. 27, Roberts Home Medical Inc. in Germantown, Md., opened its doors to visitors from Tokyo, Japan. A reward for being the top producers in the home care division of Teijin Pharma, the trip included a tour of Roberts and its sister gas production company, Roberts Oxygen Co. Inc. In addition, the group of 20 salespeople went sightseeing in Washington, D.C., before heading off to Medtrade.
"It's sort of like a perk for them to come to Medtrade," says Lou Kaufman, RRT-NPS, FAARC, vice president of patient/client services at Roberts.
Bob McCoy, BS, RRT, FAARC, managing director of Valley Inspired Products, Apple Valley, Minn., coordinated the fourth-annual visit. McCoy gives presentations to the division in Japan and helps locate a home care company for the group to visit. McCoy says the group has been to Chicago the previous three years and has visited an Apria location and Walgreens. This year, they wanted to go to Washington, D.C.
"They just wanted to see how (providers) do their operations, pretty much how they operate the business," McCoy says. "All of the home care companies that we've visited have given a presentation on their program and services, and then they do a tour of the facility."
Roberts was no exception. Ann Smith, RRT, supervisor of Roberts' respiratory care, provided an overview of the company, discussed its accreditation with Joint Commission and its relationships with the American Association of Homecare (AAHomecare) and The MED Group. Smith says the group toured the entire facility, including the warehouse, offices and service areas. She then presented a PowerPoint presentation covering the different respiratory equipment the company provides and showed some of the equipment.
"I think they were most interested in our service areas," Smith says. "The other part that they were interested in was the clinical side of it, how we use our respiratory therapists, because they don't have them in Japan. A big part of our presentation was how we use our respiratory therapists to educate and therefore increase compliance."
In fact, the Japanese health care system is quite different from the one in the United States. Home care companies in Japan get orders directly from hospitals, and the hospital pays them. Physicians are responsible for the patient. So, if there's a medical need, the doctor or a pulmonary nurse will see the patient, and many times the patient must come to the physician or nurse instead of getting a home visit.
"The hospitals over there apparently get X amount of dollars per year to take care of their patients," Smith explains. "If they're using more for the in-hospital, they don't give (the home care providers) as much money for their home care patients. They get their reimbursement cut, too. We were feeling each other's pain."
The presentation also sparked some discussion about CPAP compliance. Teijin has about a 50-percent compliance rate, whereas Roberts has an 85- to 90-percent compliance rate. Smith says the group asked a lot of questions about how Roberts achieved such high compliance.
Roberts actually uses an interesting program. One employee is responsible for personally calling patients the week after they start CPAP therapy. The idea is to identify problems early in the treatment. Next, patients are given an e-mail address and encouraged to send an e-mail with any questions or problems. After 30 days, the same employee contacts the patient again to follow up. Then follow-up moves to a medSage patient management system. If the system identifies a problem, the same employee from before follows up with the patient the next day.
"I really think having one point person builds the relationship with the patient, making a huge difference," Smith says.
McCoy says the Teijin salespeople loved the hospitality of Roberts and took away a lot from the visit.
Smith says her company also learned something. "We all have the same challenges. They have a huge challenge with compliance because they really can't get involved on that side. That makes it difficult for them. They are also having the same struggles with reimbursement. That was interesting. And the equipment is very similar, and sometimes it's the same."
Teijin's home care division comprises 60 percent of the home care market in Japan.
Roberts Home Medical Inc., located in Germantown, Md., is a full-line HME business with oxygen and respiratory services. The company has served Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., since 1977. For more information, visit www.robertshomemedical.com.
This article originally appeared in the Respiratory Management Jan/Feb 2009 issue of HME Business.