Lessons for the Future

Presenter:
Hymie Pogir, Vice President of Product Planning, National Seating and Mobility

This morning's session is a look back at the history of the rehab industry hoping to identify exactly where things went wrong and how to fix our future.

A call for educating people on exactly what we do. We shouldn't be the "wheelchair providers." We should be viewed as the people that are product experts, help people get jobs, provide functionality, help sick children.

Is the NRRTS Code of Ethics inconvenient or is it only being used when it is convenient? If adherence is inconvenient, we should change the code. If the changes are inappropriate, insist on adherence to the Code AS IS.

Mass marketing has made a positive impact on the industry. There is very little if any stigma to the usage of a powerchair. Mass marketing has expanded the market and increased the knowledge of the consumers. What should set rehab dealers apart from mass marketers is the process that the company uses.

As an industry, we do not unite together to fight the problems that come from payors and legislation. There is no unified organization, there is only a series of small and larger businesses that have to aggresively take a stand to save the industry.

All politics is local. We can not rely on someone else to do the work. We need to do the work and we need to involve the consumers. Consumer's stories are worth much more than the impact we can make on lawmakers.