WHO WE ARE 

John W. Hensman, Jr.

With the pace of change facing today's health systems, particularly for those who serve patients, most are overwhelmed. Challenges between new value-based reimbursement models, not to mention the constant pressure to improve effectiveness brings new hurdles in performance. No wonder that those serving soon show signs of burn-out. 

The art of doing healthcare smarter has given way to numerous mundane tasks to ensure accuracy of records and proper billing. Care for the patient has taken second place. With the impact of an unsettled political landscape, increased regulatory scrutiny, the rise of other consumerist care models shrinking margins, ever-diminishing inpatient admissions, competitive marketplaces, and the limit of wisdom for thinking outside the box; no wonder costs continue in rise. 

We can and will make a difference in how you conduct business. Call us to discuss some possibilities today.

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Personal Message from - RemTecH Associates LLC

From My Desk to Your

The information offered on our website was developed to assist you, your facility, and your processes - so you can better serve your clients (patients / suppliers). We do not offer it to promote our expertise, but simply summarizes how we can address your daily needs - as a partner.

Today, there are many things not working the way you feel they should. You may be asking [personally and as a facility] - how do we determine what is the correct path forward, whether information received from different vendors only reflect propaganda by the organization just to advance their sales agenda, or how can we - as a facility - best change our policies and procedures to meet tomorrow’s demands? All of us ask these questions, but we must believe there is will be brighter days ahead; when there will be some company that can help dig through all the SoundBits to the truth and guarantee the best results in such a complex environment? That is what we do!

All of us are currently living through the COVID-19 Pandemic and just trying to survive its affects. But if anything, it has forced us to reassess our operations to determine what is truly important and change our methods of operations before it is too late. 

Unfortunately, too many of us place our job ahead of other important things in life - yet others only desire to increase company status over their closest competitor. When things fall apart, (internally and externally), those who look to the future tend to change their perspective as to how to change their existing business approach. Certainly today our Healthcare System is in disarray, not to mention other industrial operational facilities all around the world. This Pandemic has exponentially amplified many existing problems that no one wanted to talk about before - now is the time for change! 

I believe our Nation requires us all to reevaluate our methods in design-development, daily functional, operations, and processes.  The direction taken, however, must reflect future demands and not current conditions. Supply Chain Management (GPOs) as to methods of purchasing materials and inventory control must be considered top priority to move forward; especially when considering the impact of COVID-19 has had on our supply availabilities.

As I stated above – our website is not about us (it never was). It was designed to help you to sift through to alternative methodologies that reflect truth. Certainly the best way anyone can meet tomorrow’s challenges is through personal prayer; prayer for our Nation, for the many facilities that serve it, and individuals that ensure things get done right the first time. 

Although we may not have had the fortune to serve you as your partner in the past, know that we continue to pray for you and your facility; even more so at this time. This COVID-19 situation will past, but to ensure true change happens and things like this don't happen again to our Supply Chain, we want to offer you a means of completing your critical changes. “Business-as-usual” cannot be the norm. 

Our approach will always reflect a unique solutions that was designed specifically for you and not one that was developed for a past client - like so many other consultants. We also want you to know that efforts to resolve your problems will always reflect a win-win for you, which is over and above our market share or even our ability to grow our company. It has never been about our personal growth as much as to see you be successful. That is our promise.

We continue to pray for our Nation and your success to meet its needs. Be safe and stay healthy!

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

(Numbers 6:24-26)

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WE ARE REMTECH ASSOCIATES LLC

Without change, we continue to do the same things over and over. Allow us to partner with you to make sure your future truly reflects your Vision. It is never to late to start and the first step will always be the hardest.

RemTecH Associates LLC

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CHANGING THE FACE OF HEALTHCARE

FRAGMENTATION

It would be an understatement to say that the health care industry will not continue to undergo a transformation over the next few years. 

Both economic and governmental interventions have not made it easy on many facilities to deliver optimal services with diminishing cash flow. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act only raised the stakes, thus shifting the focus from thinking about reform to demanding it.

If we lived in a perfect world, those controlling the outcome would spend their time designing a better means of care to patients, regardless of the cost and manpower; thus placing the patient first when considering design-service-development procedures. But we don't like in a perfect world. Health care organizations are being forced to find new ways to cut costs, improve efficiencies, but at the same time reallocate critical and expensive resources to achieve optimal patient care. Realigning priorities is a difficult task; choosing the right strategies is not easy. And having enough insight to make the correct decisions that will sustain and transform health care takes an analysis that may not be in-house. With more than 32 million new patients coming into the U.S. health care system based on forced governmental reform, health care organizations will need as much agility as they can get. What will it take to make that final leap in Health Care Patient Services?

Certainly doing business as usual will not make it happen; believing that if we continue to move in the direction set before, we will eventually get there. Albert Einstein suggests: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different results."

You will need to take some very bold steps to break the mold from where we have been to where we need to go. A rethinking of the Health Care Business Model is required and to do that, it will mean that many mind-sets will need to be changed in the fields of: Architecture, Supply Chain Management, Procurement, and most important Physician run facilities. Each group has their own specific interest; most being control, but over and above that power is income. If you have control you have the mean of convicting other groups that you know what you are talking about and deserve the funds requested to execute the work tasks at hand. True sustainability must go beyond guidelines now recommended by Lean and Green advocates when developing a Strategic Master Planning. Considerations to develop and accommodate departmental location, deliverables (process flow), and management of waste must be part of the overall design methodology if any facility is to survive. 

Since trends towards outpatient care and wellness venues are expected to continue, all the more reason to consider the need to fully develop an executable plan that takes into consideration: integration of material-traffic-flow in addition to facility aesthetics. Management cannot continue to do-what-we-have-always-done, for that will not change the outcome. If we leave true change to the lawyers and politicians to fix, the solution will look like it was made by lawyers and politicians and it is highly likely that we won't like it. 

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MEASURING SUCCESS

WHAT IS BEHIND CURTAIN #1

Staying in Tough with Project Needs

1. Recognizing and embracing the fact the change is a journey and not a destination. It will take time and investments to complete
2. Adopting a comprehensive approach that provides organizational growth based on a common language that sets goals before acquiring additional tools to execute work
3. Exhibit unequivocal leadership through consistency, that includes input from all relative parties to ensure the correct pathway
4. Communicate regularly a clear message as it unfolds to empower team decisions. All information is critical
5. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities to ensure measurable and proper execution
6. Ensure ownership of tasks, recognizing phase completions by team players
7. Do not avoid discussions that are needed to correct dysfunctional behaviors, be tough but fair
8. Make sure all staff are heard and suggestions reviewed. No idea is too small as to its potental
9. Never underestimate the success of change efforts and give honor to the ones who contributed
10. Failure is not a option, but should be viewed as a learning process that leads to higher levels of accomplishments

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CHANGE IS ONLY POSSIBLE - TOGETHER!

Albert Einstein once suggested: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." We believe they go hand-and-hand. True change begins with an imagination, needs someone knowledgeable to execute tasks, and then shed some light as to how to move vision into reality. And that takes a partner! Allow us to show you the way.

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Value-Based-Care vs. Fee-For-Service Policies

It is impossible to discuss the future of healthcare without hearing the phrase "value-based-care." While the traditional fee-for-service reimbursement model promotes quantity of services, federal officials have proposed several reimbursement programs that reward healthcare providers (presumptuously) to cover their costs and increase the quality of care at the same time, but costs continue to increase even with this attempted change.

As the healthcare industry transitions to this new way of delivering care, many healthcare providers continue to wonder how value-based-care is different, what programs will they support, and how successful it be long-term. Short-term, all it has developed was more stress for profitability.

What are the differences?

• Fee-for-services model: healthcare providers were paid for the amount of services rendered. With this concept, providers ordered more tests and procedure as well as managed more patients in order to increase their billings. Costs were determined by what commercial payers would pay in the private market and a percentage of what Medicare would paid for similar services. Rates, typically were non-bundled, meaning each service was paid separately. Cost variations for procedures and tests rose based on what the local market could bare. Although testing and procedures increased, patient care and sanctification decreased do to costs. 

To drive down costs and improve patient outcomes, the Federal government designed value-based care; packaging it up with a pretty ribbon calling it Obama Care (Affordable Care Act). Their goal was straight forward and very ambitious, but soon reflected an underlined agenda (Socialized Medicine). 

• Value-based-care: calculates based on numerous measures; some of which determined the need for a combined effort to share information (IT) through a centralized database, a different approach based on patient engagement to determine what processes where acceptable, a reduction of hospital readmission levels and or outpatient procedures verses lengthy hospital days for services, and cap-costs for service rendered. All this to ensure accountability of the provider to control costs and increase qualities given. Bundled payments rely on certain levels of risk. If the provider is able to decrease the cost of their services below the bundled payment price, then they can pocket the savings, but if costs are greater, there is a financial lost. Medicare has caps in place to protect those using its service. Costs continue to increase and with more using the service, providers are loosing ground financially. The first to go was the Rural Hospitals were volume was to key to remain operational.

Although both models have their good and bad points, the key is volume, costs, procedures, and available technology has been a problem for smaller facilities. Much like the "New Green Deal" suggested for 2020 Democrats, details are not well defined as to execution. The Medicare was originally designed to take care of our seniors, but to open the same capped conditions - Medicare for All - would only further place undo stress on care and not truly address true costs which continue to increase.

Most would agree, we have yet to fully leverage the value-based-care model. Going into the future, there are certain realities which must be addressed in order to see meaningful progress toward advancements in patient care while bending the proverbial cost curve of services rendered. What has been seen so far is to - reduce costs using unproven big promises to increase patient care sanctification levels, which remain in decline. Healthcare is very complex and certainly there are numerous areas that are jointly connected (threads that affect one another). You cannot look or even try to fix one area without disrupting another. WE NEED TO LOOK AT THE LARGER PICTURE. 

We are RemTecH Associates believes there is an item that continues to go unanswered. The area of Inventory Management Design to be not considered during design-development phasing. This oversight costs facilities 30-40% in annual revenue based on poorly conceived design policies and procedures. IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE...

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