ASP Global expands into home medical supplies

ATLANTA - With its acquisition of Professional Healing Solutions, a DME provider, ASP Global says it has closed the loop from hospital to home.

“We wanted to be able to supply the entire continuum of care from the hospital all the way through to the patients at their homes,” said Lorne Tritt, CEO of ASP Global, a wholesaler of hospital medical supplies. “A lot of care is shifting outside the hospital and patients are going to be looking more and more to be taken care of in their own settings and needing those supplies, as well.”

The Crossville, Tenn.-based Professional Healing Solutions specializes in wound care supplies, fulfilling prescriptions for disposable advanced wound care dressings directly to patient's homes.

The ability to provide products and services end-to-end also allows ASP Global to ensure product continuity, something that's becoming increasingly important as hospitals try to prevent readmissions, says Tritt.

“Especially in the wound care space, hospitals lose control of the patient once they leave,” he said. “They want to make sure the patient gets the same product, but that's difficult if all they are doing is passing them on to another third party.”

The deal is part of a larger trend of manufacturers dipping their toes into the provider side of the market, with Coloplast buying Comfort Medical and Domtar buying Home Delivery Incontinence Services, both in December 2016.

“There's a lot of home care, and you combine it with the Internet in terms of more and more people buying online,” said Tritt. “I think it will continue to pick up steam, which is why players are starting to get more into this.”

Professional Healing Solution's model of quality care—one built by two nurses—was a big draw for ASP Global, says Tritt.

“We are seeing that patients don't need someone just to order supplies, they need someone to be more consultative and take a clinical approach to care,” he said. “They are actually onsite at the hospital or the wound care center and are able to see what the patient really needs and provide better treatment.”