Sleep

Top Tips for a Successful Resupply Business

• By Joseph Duffy
• Apr 01, 2012

Here is a checklist of must-implement tips for starting or maintaining a successful sleep resupply business. Thank you to all the experts interviewed for the resupply article, who contributed to this list.

• Understand sleep medicine FIRST! The rest will follow naturally. I meet with folks all the time who really feel they are experts in sleep, yet don’t understand basic sleep terms, such as AHI, RDI, nocturnal hypoventilation, and staging sleep.
  
  
• Have a clinician onsite to help lead the program, gear the program toward outcomes, and employ an effective patient management system.
  
  
• Don’t “pick, pack and ship” your own products. It’s not WHAT we do in this industry. Find a good partner and outsource it.
  
  
• Get the word out through mail, email, your website, advertising, etc. Talk about your service and the lines you carry. Remember, patients discuss products online and in support groups.
  
  
• Make sure you get good masks in the lab’s sleep technician’s hands to use in sleep studies and then make sure there is plenty of inventory of the mask so the patients can show up and get fitted right away.
  
  
• Know your shipping costs. This sometimes gets overlooked. It may not make sense to mail a filter or a tube, while it makes sense to mail a mask resupply with the filet or tube.
  
  
• Consider bringing in a patient communication and management partner but don’t pay set-up fees or get locked into a contract.
  
  
• Develop a program that puts patient needs in the center.
  
  
• Start slow and ramp up.
  
  
• Offer patient education at the time of set up.
  
  
• Implement a detailed compliance follow-up program.

This article originally appeared in the Respiratory & Sleep Management April 2012 issue of HME Business.