Every issue of Mobility Management is a learning experience — that’s one of the most rewarding parts of the job — but this March issue was an even bigger lesson than usual.
Let’s start with beds and mattresses. We debut our Nighttime Positioning comparos with this issue (page 19), and include a sidebar on the coverage criteria differences for Group 1 and Group 2 support surfaces. It’s all in keeping with our dedication to proper client positioning 24/7.
Then there’s the cover feature, our annual funding case studies special. This year’s subjects: funding tips for getting payors to say yes to all-terrain wheelchairs, various types of wheelchair seat cushions, and transitions from manual mobility to power. Funding case study bonus: Check out a fourth case study about power assist, featured as part of our look at the 2009 manual wheelchair market.
That story is within our annual Seating & Positioning Handbook, which features an industry survey of rehab providers. We asked what you’ll be recommending and purchasing this year; you spoke. See what your peers said.
But back to the manual wheelchair feature story. Among the experts weighing in were three men who use manual chairs every day — Josh Anderson and Marty Ball from TiLite, and Chris Veatch from NEXT Mobility. They approached their interviews with a dual perspective, as both industry insiders and consumers.
And they — as well as the story’s other interviewees — made me think of manual chairs in a whole new way.
I’ve always thought of ultralightweight manual chairs as the industry’s equivalent of go-karts: quick, maneuverable, minimalist and yes, a little flashy. But are they complex rehab equipment on par, customization wise, with Group 3 power chairs?
Thanks to this month’s interviewees, I think that answer is yes.
I now know, as Josh explained, that some ultralight chairs can have their seats tapered “so the front of the seat is a little narrower than the rear of the seat so it holds your legs in a little better…and we can do that with an Ergo Seat, which has a flat spot in the back of the seat designed to give you a little bit more pelvic stability.”
Wow: customization that extends to anti-tippers, casters and wheel locks. Cool.
“If you think of a set of leg braces and how they’re fit,” Marty added, “how they’re bent and twisted and turned to fit the user, we try to do the same thing with a wheelchair. We liken it to a wheeled orthosis, rather than a piece of durable medical equipment. It’s really gotten to that level, and so it’s more complex than a complex power chair, quite honestly.”
Never thought of it that way (with all due respect to our power chair friends).
Chris discussed yet another side of the manual chair — combine it with power assist, and you can create another option for consumers not ready to switch to power. It’s a choice that can save funding sources money, as well.
Hey, choices are good. Very good.
As Marty said, manual chairs have taken such a leap forward, “We need to have a different name for this.”
Since manual chairs deserve a “new name,” I vote for “complex rehab” — the kind so customized it needs to be excluded from competitive bidding. How about it, CMS?
