Hospital outpatient pharmacies and durable medical equipment

Factors to consider when planning and implementing a durable medical equipment (DME) business are discussed. Although hospital pharmacists have begun to provide home health-care and other outpatient-care services, few hospital pharmacies have implemented DME businesses in conjunction with those services. By providing DME to patients, hospital pharmacies can realize substantial net income while improving continuity of patient care. Before establishing a DME business, pharmacists should consider where the showroom will be located, who will deliver and set up the equipment and train patients to use the equipment, and how the business will be promoted within the hospital; they must also become familiar with methods of reimbursement for DME. It is also important for pharmacists to decide whether the hospital should enter into a joint-venture relationship with an established community-based DME dealer or act as sole owner of the DME business. As hospitals search for ways to generate income from sources other than inpatient care and to encourage patients to use hospital services, hospital pharmacists should not overlook the possibility of establishing a DME business in conjunction with other outpatient-care programs.