Archive: January 2008
Invacare prepares to roll out new POC
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
ELYRIA, Ohio - The FDA granted 510k clearance in December to Invacare's new portable oxygen concentrator, which the company expects to begin rolling out sometime during the first quarter of this year, said Joe Lewarski, vice president, respiratory products group. The XPO2 portable concentrator weighs 6 pounds and incorporates pulse-dose technology. It operates from battery, AC or DC power. The two-and-a-half hour battery duration (at setting 2) may be doubled to five hours through the use of an optional...
COPD drugsgo head to head
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
LONDON - Clinical trial results show Glaxo's Advair has an edge over Pfizer's Spiriva in treating patients with COPD, Reuters reported Dec. 28. A two-year study of 1,300 patients found both drugs had a similar impact on rate of exacerbations, but patients treated with Advair gained a significant improvement in health status and greater survival benefit than those on Spiriva, according to Glaxo. Results of the first head-to-head study of the two drugs were published in the American Journal of Respiratory...
RecoverCare branches out
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. - RecoverCare acquired Houston-based Patient Care Systems, the company announced Jan. 2. Like RecoverCare, PCS provides therapeutic mattresses, bariatric equipment and safe patient handling products to hospitals, nursing homes and homecare patients. The acquisition of PCS will add 38 service centers in 26 states to RecoverCare's national service network, further strengthening customer service and facility delivery times, RecoverCare stated in a release.
Interrupted sleep can increase risk
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - Disrupted sleep hurts the body's ability to regulate blood sugar levels, possibly increasing the risk of Type 2 diabetes, say researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center. In a Jan. 2 report issued in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers studied the sleep patterns of nine volunteers, five men and four women, all of normal weight, in good health and ages 20 to 31. When the volunteers went into slow-wave sleep--the deepest level...
Orbit Medical seeks increased efficiency
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
SALT LAKE CITY - Orbit Medical has developed proprietary software to consolidate operating systems and facilitate logistics, the provider announced Dec. 21. The software, called InventoryBos, reconciles and tracks inventory on one platform for more than two dozen offices and warehouses. According to Orbit: "Although the system's up-front costs were significant, the system will represent long-term cost savings through increased efficiencies, which will allow Orbit Medical to continue focusing on superior...
The great HME escape
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - The industry breathed a sigh of relief in mid-December when a new Medicare bill contained no reimbursement cuts for home medical equipment. But it's going to take a ton of hard work to continue that winning streak in 2008.
"This is a delay, an intermission," said Cara Bachenheimer, Invacare's senior vice president of government relations. "It does give us some time, but this thing is going to start up real quick in 2008."
The Senate passed S.2499 unanimously Dec. 19. The House voted...
Patients harmonize for better breathing
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
PHOENIX - There are a bunch of people in Phoenix singing the praises of the John C. Lincoln Better Breathers support group and with good reason.
For the past few years, the hospital has used "harmonica therapy" to help patients with COPD and other lung diseases improve their overall health.
"It's a supplement to other things: medication compliance, seeing a pulmonologist, a little bit of exercise, things like that," said Mike Clark, who works at the hospital as a registered respiratory therapist....
Bello's rule: Don't slack on employee reviews
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
FORT WORTH, Ind. - Industry consultant Ty Bello has come out with a new Web-based tool to help companies conduct quarterly reviews of employee performance for two reasons: First, with mandatory accreditation on the horizon and most accreditors requiring annual employee evaluations, it's a good business opportunity; and second, communicating regularly with employees has never been more important.
"The people we have on our team are getting feedback all the time," Bello said. "They have iPods, text...
Respironics deal sparks speculation
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
MURRYSVILLE, Pa. - One of the home medical equipment industry's largest manufacturers changed hands in December, when Philips Electronics acquired Respironics for a whopping $5.1 billion.
As far as acquisitions of HME manufacturers go, this ranks as perhaps the biggest ever and has set off tremors in some parts of the industry, with the big question being: Who's next? Both ResMed and Fisher & Paykel are key players in the sleep market and analysts have mentioned them as potential acquisition targets....
Drive acquires European maker of mobility products
January 31, 2008HME News Staff
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. - Drive Medical continued its push into the European market in December when it announced the acquisition of Medicare Technology Limited, a manufacturer and distributor of power mobility products, lift chairs, patient aids and bathroom safety products in Europe.
Medicare's principal facility is located in West Yorks, United Kingdom. From there it distributes its products throughout Europe, including all of the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Greece and other...