Wise words for your Wednesday, Medtrade edition

I don't know if you've had time to devour Show Daily 2 and I know you haven't seen Show Daily 3 yet (we're working on it right now in a secret room off one of the show entrances), so I thought I might share with you some gems from the issues.

You're not alone

This year more than ever I realized that, while Medtrade has some excellent education, a lot of what attendees crave from the event is the opportunity to talk to each other.

When I hounded Jerri McLamb for our Question of the Day on Tuesday, she said, “To be in an audit class and to hear that other providers are going through the same thing is huge.”

Tara Ellington told Managing Editor Theresa Flaherty about competitive bidding coming to rural areas in 2016, “It's super important for us to talk to people who have been dealing with it and gaining insight from that.”

Power of patients

We've heard time and time again of the importance of involving patients in the industry's advocacy efforts. But what about their every day businesses?

A physician who was on a panel talking about the difficultly of getting documentation for power mobility devices said, “I would encourage you to give the (documentation) back to the patient or caregiver and say, 'Take this to your doctor.' When the patient starts complaining, that gets our attention.”

Eminently quotable

And here are just a few of my favorite quotes from the issues:

“It looks good, feels good, feels different. People seem less cautious and more optimistic. They are dealing with this bidding thing and figuring it out,” Kevin Gaffney, Medtrade

“Even if your business is doing well, it could be doing better,” Miriam Lieber, Lieber Consulting

“No one is going to make the RACs go away. What you can do is make it go away for your company,” Wayne van Halem, van Halem Group

“You need to know what a product is, what it does and what that means. Disease management is not just about the product anymore,” Cheryl Needham, Philips Respironics