HME News

SEP 2017

HME News is the monthly business newspaper for home medical equipment providers. This controlled circulation publication reaches 17,100 home medical equipment services providers, including traditional HME dealers & suppliers, hospital- and pharmacy-o

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Smart Talk 12 www.hmenews.com / september 2017 / hme news Social Media e fficiencie S Make the investment By Katlyn Bourget Q. How do i measure social media R oi ? a . When considering hiring a social media professional to help your business, there are a few questions Get out of the box By Melissa Koza K Q. How do i cut down on wasted supplies sent to patients? a . The issue of wasted supplies has been carefully studied in health care, as providers contin- ue to look for ways to cut costs. While the federal government continues to debate the future of the Affordable Care Act, one thing is clear: Waste will likely stand out as lawmakers look for funding. The National Academy of Medicine estimates that the U.S. health care system wastes $765 billion a year. For example, every year, as a home infusion nurse, I know that home infusion companies spend millions of dollars a year on sup- plies their patients will never use. We send hundreds of dozens of saline flushes at a time, often to patients who already have hun- dreds on hand. The key question for you is, how are you monitoring what your patients have on hand? Are you relying on your patients to tell you what they have? Are you automatically sending supplies on a pre-defined schedule? How many staff hours are you spend- ing just trying to get a handle on what your patients need? As it happens, SaaS solutions are already widely used for inventory management, even in health care. It's clear that technology can do for business what phone calls and the occasional spot check can't: pro- vide accurate and ongoing data collection. You could easily implement a digital process in which home visits by clinicians would include accurate inventory counts via company mobile devices, com- municating with your office, pharmacy, and billing manager. This may sound too sophisti- cated or expensive, but it's the opposite. Nowadays, it's the tra- ditional processes that are too expensive to maintain. hme Melissa Kozak is CEO of Citus Health. Reach her at Melissa.kozak@citush- ealth.com. you may need answered. How do I justify this person's salary? How is this going to help my business? What is my business going to gain from using social media as a mar- keting tactic? c onsider the customer journey ROI doesn't always have to mean a sale. What are your business objectives? Align your social media goals accordingly. It could mean that potential customers clicked through to your website or that you were able to obtain their email address. c onnect the dots Link people who are regularly commenting or liking content to customers. Did you just gain a new customer? Check your social media pages and see if you can make a connection. Do you have social media followers who are already customers? Remember that you are consistently main- taining your relationship with them. Next time they need your product or service, you will be remembered. t rack roi For some, goals are more con- crete; while for others, goals might be email list sign-ups, contact form submissions, clicks to your website, purchases or downloads. By measuring clicks, impressions and engagement you can prove the increase over time, which will show if your strategy is working. By adding trackable links you can demonstrate what drove traffic to your website and the actions they are taking. In social media, ROI might not always be black and white, but you will get your customer one step closer to making a purchasing deci- sion. hme Katlyn Bourget is digital & PR specialist at Pediatric Home Service. Reach her at kjbourget@pediatrichomeservice.com

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