Page 19 - HME Business, July/August 2022

“What we do for the HME customers is mostly allow their respiratory therapists to stay with the patients and people that need them the most,” says Chuck Stadler Jr., RN, president and CEO of rtNOW. “It’s about keeping the resources available for those patients who really need the respiratory therapist in-person the most, and we can be there for them in other more virtual-type scenarios.
“Some of the services that we offer HME companies are CPAP setups, CPAP adherence programs, and the monthly or quarterly ventilator check programs,” he continues. “So some of these patients are healthy patients otherwise, but they just have questions, and they want to be able to get them answered in quick and not necessarily an in-person format. Oftentimes we can get there quicker because we can be there virtually.”
The technology backbone for this is CoreLink, a HIPAA-compliant video chat system that links to rtNOW’s respiratory therapists or the provider’s therapists. The HME provider logs into the system, enters a
“What we do for the HME customers is mostly allow their respiratory therapists to stay with the patients and people that need them the most. It’s about keeping the resources available for those patients who really need the respiratory therapist in-person the most.”
patient phone number or email, and a link that is valid for one hour is sent directly to the patient. When the patient clicks on the link using their computer or handheld device, a video conference with the RT automatically begins.
In terms of human resources, rtNOW employs a team of respiratory therapists with management levels and leadership in place, to ensure that it can care for the company’s various provider customers.
“Then we hire additional respiratory therapists as more customers or more volume from those customers comes on board, and we integrate them into our team, focusing on how we do things but also how
— Chuck Stadler Jr., RN, rtNOW
we do things as a direct reflection of how our customers like to do things,” Stadler explains.
In terms of how things get done, bc rtNOW has been doing this for a while and is very focused on specific workflows, it has been able to refine those processes to ensure better outcomes. Take the company’s adherence program, for example. The company had its first batch of patients come out of a 90-day program at 90 percent adherence.
“We have a very detailed process of getting patients set up virtually,” Stadler says. “Every customer is a little bit different on where we get inserted in the process,
Management Solutions | Technology | Products hme-business.com | Ju.y/August 2022 | HMEBusiness 17 Untitled-111 1 7/27/22 7:06 PM
Business Solutions