How to make the world work better

I get quite a few things in my email inbox that aren't quite the right fit for HME News. As I often have to explain to this PR person or that PR person, our niche in health care is pretty specific: home medical equipment.

I usually give these emails a quick read-through, anyway—what can I say, I'm a reporter and therefore curious.

Such was the case today, when I got a press release from a group called the American Society for Quality or ASQ. It bills itself as a “global community of people dedicated to quality who share the ideas and tools that make our world work better.” Pretty lofty stuff.

For its latest projects, the ASQ polled 300 of its members in the healthcare quality profession on their priorities, hurdles to cost-cutting and opportunities for belt-tightening.

It's not surprising that reducing hospital readmissions topped the list of priorities. Others include:

•    Implementing patient care coordination programs; and
•    Redesigning the healthcare delivery model to include alternatives to physician delivery of primary care.

Hurdles to cost-cutting include:

•    A model of reimbursement that favors sick care over health maintenance; and
•    Fragmented, uncoordinated patient care.

Opportunities for belt-tightening:
•    Better implementation, distribution and acceptance of preventative medicine to keep patients healthy longer, reducing demand.

You've probably noticed a trend in the findings that I've included here. They're all priorities/hurdles/opportunities that I believe HME providers can help with.

While not something we'd write a story about in HME News, I thought these findings were worth reading about and sharing with you.

Thinking about how to make the world work better may be a lofty goal, but definitely one worth pondering.