The ABCs of DME: a home care durable medical equipment/home oxygen program

With the evolution of high-tech healthcare in the home setting, patients and families now need to learn the skills to perform the tasks that previously were done in hospital settings by health professionals. Numerous private and federally funded home health organizations are offering services to this patient population. The mission of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is to improve the quality of care provided to the public (JCAHO, 1991b). In 1988, the commission implemented standards for the accreditation of home care and began to survey home care providers (JCAHO, 1988). Standards governing the provision of durable medical equipment are included in the JCAHO Accreditation Manual for Home Care (1991a). The article describes an effective collaborative approach used to develop a comprehensive durable medical equipment/home oxygen (DME/home O2) program at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DVAMC), now called the Veterans Health Administration Medical Center, in East Orange, NJ. Project management principles were used by the quality management (QM) staff to develop and implement the DME/home O2 program successfully.