Hanger/Linkia/SPS and also education....part II of II
Jim DeWees
Description
Collection
Title:
Hanger/Linkia/SPS and also education....part II of II
Creator:
Jim DeWees
Date:
10/3/2006
Text:
While I am at it, to re-emphasize Eric Eisenburg's comments, who among us is
buying stuff from SPS? In the Quarterly meetings, they also boast that SPS
sales grew more than 30% last quarter all from NON-HANGER facility
purchases. Who did that? Why on earth are you supporting the company that
is trying to take away our patients, and worse than that, take the CHOICE of
the patient away and force them to go to their facilities? How can you sit
and criticize Hanger for this Linkia deal, and complain how it is hurting
the patients, and the independents, and then turn right around and place
orders with that same company and support them?
I have had the SPS sales rep in my office, and he is a very nice guy, I wish
I could do business with him, but because of principles and SPS connections,
I cannot work with him. He said straight to me, that SPS is totally
independent of Hanger, and that what SPS does in business does not make any
impact on Hanger. Well, according to the company meeting transcripts, that
is NOT true, and I knew that was the case even before reading the minutes.
The money that SPS makes goes directly into the Hanger company bottom line.
EVERY item you purchase from SPS only helps them get stronger and bigger.
In the transcripts, one of the executives stated that their goal is to get
some vendors to do 100% business with SPS, so if any of us wanted to use a
certain components for a patient, we would be forced to go through SPS,
which would generate more revenue for Hanger. We CANNOT help them grow so
that they can also capture the entire supply part of the field as well.
There are a few other vendors out there that cater to the independent
facilities, which do very good quality service and can provide possibly some
other service which would make it worth your while to search them out and
see what would work best for your situation. For example, I have used
Cascade for the past 4 years. I have place hundreds of orders with them,
and have 100% perfection on everything. One bonus they offer is they ship
everything with overnight shipping, and only charge for the standard
shipping rate. That saves me a lot of money over the year. The prices of
the products are the same across the board, before any discounts are given
at least.
There is a lot going on in this field right now, and we ALL need to be
informed and take some action, no matter how small it might be. I do not
want to be guilty of helping any company capture an unfair portion of the
market, or help someone that the independents view as a competitor. We all
have voiced opinions and concerns over the possible monopoly and how that
would not be good for the patients and the industry as a whole, but yet we
as an industry have helped this monopoly grow by buying supplies and
materials that could have been purchased from a number of vendors. It will
NOT be a good thing for this industry if any ONE vendor is able to have sole
distribution rights for any components. If that was to happen, then that
vendor would have total control over the prices they charge, and the buyers
or consumers would have NO power to do anything about that.
On to a new topic, which I hope to come back to in the near future, is the
educational issues of this field, this new educational deal that
Northwestern has put together. I do not believe, from what I understand at
this time, that it is a good thing for this field. We have gone from
allowing people with NO formal education to enter this field, carrying the
same credentials as those of us that did make the sacrifice to get an
education, and that cost a whopping $75 to buy the credentials. Now, that
door and pathway has been shut down, and so it is back to making everyone
(almost everyone at least) that wants to get into this profession obtain a
formal education in this field. But, as the talk of making the requirements
equal to a master's degree and even having a doctorate available, we learn
of this home study program. I can not even begin to understand how doing a
distance learning, or a correspondence course, could ever teach enough about
patient care, patient interaction, bedside manners, not to mention the hands
on skills that are required to cast, fabricate, modify, and all the other
skills that are necessary to do this work. What's next? Maybe when you
turn on the computer, and log onto Hotmail, we will see a University of
Phoenix ad on how to buy a degree in O&P and get it for virtually no effort,
just money. Maybe we will start getting junk emails that offer the same
thing, I get them all the time on how to purchase some master's degree in
something, it only takes money to have some fancy credentials behind your
name, but no real coursework, and no real education is done. Even though
the practitioners will have some letters behind their names, and will be
eligible to take the ABC exam (and with the proper review course, which of
course costs more money, and practice exams are given out to study off
of...it's a pretty much no brainer that you will pass the exam that way) it
will look like we have a new way to get more qualified providers in this
field. But what have they really learned? How can anyone possibly learn
what they need to learn when they are only required to be in the actual
class room setting just a few days at the most. With that kind of thinking,
how can any of us in this field ever say that the course work that PTs have
to take on O&P is inferior to what is required in our own field? The
average PT will have more formal training, more hours in the actual class
room than what is required by an NCOPE educational program. That is just my
thoughts at this point, and I am open to learning more about what the
program is all about. I certainly do NOT see any other health care
profession that offers anything like this. We cannot continue to try to
convince the public, the other health care entities, payers, etc. that we
are the better ones to do this work when we continue to water down the
academic requirements (or remove the academic requirements altogether).
Maybe that will be a good way to PTs that have interest in this field (maybe
out of necesity) to do the home study course in their free time, pay the
money to Northwestern, and get a gratuitous credential, and then make them
officially a qualified provider, at least in OUR eyes. But, this would have
some positive impact to the field in the long run: it would generate more
money for NCOPE for residency fees, and would produce more candidates for
Hanger to hire at $25,000 a year to run an office and treat patients;
generate more money for ABC and every other organization that has a hand
sticking out there for their piece of the pie.
The big question is: will this pathway produce new practitioners that have
all the skills and knowledge to fit and fabricate the appropriate devices?
Have a great week.
Jim DeWees, CP
buying stuff from SPS? In the Quarterly meetings, they also boast that SPS
sales grew more than 30% last quarter all from NON-HANGER facility
purchases. Who did that? Why on earth are you supporting the company that
is trying to take away our patients, and worse than that, take the CHOICE of
the patient away and force them to go to their facilities? How can you sit
and criticize Hanger for this Linkia deal, and complain how it is hurting
the patients, and the independents, and then turn right around and place
orders with that same company and support them?
I have had the SPS sales rep in my office, and he is a very nice guy, I wish
I could do business with him, but because of principles and SPS connections,
I cannot work with him. He said straight to me, that SPS is totally
independent of Hanger, and that what SPS does in business does not make any
impact on Hanger. Well, according to the company meeting transcripts, that
is NOT true, and I knew that was the case even before reading the minutes.
The money that SPS makes goes directly into the Hanger company bottom line.
EVERY item you purchase from SPS only helps them get stronger and bigger.
In the transcripts, one of the executives stated that their goal is to get
some vendors to do 100% business with SPS, so if any of us wanted to use a
certain components for a patient, we would be forced to go through SPS,
which would generate more revenue for Hanger. We CANNOT help them grow so
that they can also capture the entire supply part of the field as well.
There are a few other vendors out there that cater to the independent
facilities, which do very good quality service and can provide possibly some
other service which would make it worth your while to search them out and
see what would work best for your situation. For example, I have used
Cascade for the past 4 years. I have place hundreds of orders with them,
and have 100% perfection on everything. One bonus they offer is they ship
everything with overnight shipping, and only charge for the standard
shipping rate. That saves me a lot of money over the year. The prices of
the products are the same across the board, before any discounts are given
at least.
There is a lot going on in this field right now, and we ALL need to be
informed and take some action, no matter how small it might be. I do not
want to be guilty of helping any company capture an unfair portion of the
market, or help someone that the independents view as a competitor. We all
have voiced opinions and concerns over the possible monopoly and how that
would not be good for the patients and the industry as a whole, but yet we
as an industry have helped this monopoly grow by buying supplies and
materials that could have been purchased from a number of vendors. It will
NOT be a good thing for this industry if any ONE vendor is able to have sole
distribution rights for any components. If that was to happen, then that
vendor would have total control over the prices they charge, and the buyers
or consumers would have NO power to do anything about that.
On to a new topic, which I hope to come back to in the near future, is the
educational issues of this field, this new educational deal that
Northwestern has put together. I do not believe, from what I understand at
this time, that it is a good thing for this field. We have gone from
allowing people with NO formal education to enter this field, carrying the
same credentials as those of us that did make the sacrifice to get an
education, and that cost a whopping $75 to buy the credentials. Now, that
door and pathway has been shut down, and so it is back to making everyone
(almost everyone at least) that wants to get into this profession obtain a
formal education in this field. But, as the talk of making the requirements
equal to a master's degree and even having a doctorate available, we learn
of this home study program. I can not even begin to understand how doing a
distance learning, or a correspondence course, could ever teach enough about
patient care, patient interaction, bedside manners, not to mention the hands
on skills that are required to cast, fabricate, modify, and all the other
skills that are necessary to do this work. What's next? Maybe when you
turn on the computer, and log onto Hotmail, we will see a University of
Phoenix ad on how to buy a degree in O&P and get it for virtually no effort,
just money. Maybe we will start getting junk emails that offer the same
thing, I get them all the time on how to purchase some master's degree in
something, it only takes money to have some fancy credentials behind your
name, but no real coursework, and no real education is done. Even though
the practitioners will have some letters behind their names, and will be
eligible to take the ABC exam (and with the proper review course, which of
course costs more money, and practice exams are given out to study off
of...it's a pretty much no brainer that you will pass the exam that way) it
will look like we have a new way to get more qualified providers in this
field. But what have they really learned? How can anyone possibly learn
what they need to learn when they are only required to be in the actual
class room setting just a few days at the most. With that kind of thinking,
how can any of us in this field ever say that the course work that PTs have
to take on O&P is inferior to what is required in our own field? The
average PT will have more formal training, more hours in the actual class
room than what is required by an NCOPE educational program. That is just my
thoughts at this point, and I am open to learning more about what the
program is all about. I certainly do NOT see any other health care
profession that offers anything like this. We cannot continue to try to
convince the public, the other health care entities, payers, etc. that we
are the better ones to do this work when we continue to water down the
academic requirements (or remove the academic requirements altogether).
Maybe that will be a good way to PTs that have interest in this field (maybe
out of necesity) to do the home study course in their free time, pay the
money to Northwestern, and get a gratuitous credential, and then make them
officially a qualified provider, at least in OUR eyes. But, this would have
some positive impact to the field in the long run: it would generate more
money for NCOPE for residency fees, and would produce more candidates for
Hanger to hire at $25,000 a year to run an office and treat patients;
generate more money for ABC and every other organization that has a hand
sticking out there for their piece of the pie.
The big question is: will this pathway produce new practitioners that have
all the skills and knowledge to fit and fabricate the appropriate devices?
Have a great week.
Jim DeWees, CP
Citation
Jim DeWees, “Hanger/Linkia/SPS and also education....part II of II,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 2, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/227442.
