"How are we doing? Our Goal is Outstanding Service. At Apria Healthcare, we're focused on ensuring that every patient experiences the highest level of service possible... We want to be your first choice...Was your order accurate and on time?"

From a pamphlet inside the PARTIAL order we received with Ellie's order today. Let's break those questions down...

How are we doing? Not well at all... Yes we knew we would not get decent customer service, the orders would be wrong, and her scripts would be sent back and forth making us and her doctors frustrated. Knowing this in advance why did we go back to Apria? Well because we had no choice. No body else (in our insurance network) was willing to take our daughter and her complex medical needs on. If I had the choice I would NEVER have left Pharmaquip. They were doing a wonderful job, but they are out of network. With upcoming changes I cannot afford to have the 25% out of pocket copay.

What is it about Apria that I upset and frustrated over? For nearly a month now we have been fighting with Apria to get her prescription order corrected and the needed supplies sent out to us. I have spoken with Apria 4 times now to get her address corrected in their system because we have moved. How hard is it to plug in the new address and get the address to stick?

When we were changing back to Apria, I emailed our DME list with the reference numbers for EACH item, the amount of each item we have been receiving to the GI doctor so the prescription could be sent in. Last month the GI office sent in the script for the GI needs and her local peds doctor sent in the respiratory script. Apria sent everything (even the respiratory) back to the GI clinic claiming the scripts were all incomplete and needed more information.

Well the scripts were sent back with more complete information. Again the scripts were sent back to the doctors claiming they needed to be separated out and individually signed. Again the clinic (annoyed) but followed through. By this point I got our Tricare case manager involved and had her communicating with our GI clinic as all involved were becoming very frustrated.

Needless to say the past couple days have been even more frustrating as Apria has been demanding more ridiculous things. As of today they are telling me there will be an additional 5 day waiting period (at least) as they wait for the insurance approval for her formula. (UGH!!!) they have preapproval already!!!

Oh and this time they said the formula and pedialute scripts were not good enough because the cans and liters were not broken down into specific kcal and ounce amounts per day. Because there was not an exact kcal and ounce amount per day they could not honor the scripts??? What she is SEVEN YEARS OLD???? Come on what child who is 7 needs to know the exact kcal, fluid ounce amount, and pump run time per day?

Today alone I have spoken with the GI Clinic, the case manager, and Apria several times. At one point I thought I was going to lose it, and had to work very hard to keep my self together.

The delivery from Apria we got today did not help matters any.

She got:
25- 500cc feeding pump bags (needs 60)
30 Ferral Venting bags (Yay this is right)
5 g-tube extensions!!
5 j-tube extensions!!
10 tagadern (?? normally get 30-90)
20 3x3 duoderm (normally get larger sizes)
6- 60cc syringes
10cc syringes (no 5cc or 20cc normally a variety)

What we are missing:
35- 500cc feeding pump bags
2 feeding pumps one for formula and one for pedialyte
formula and pedialyte (so glad the GI office has some set aside for her. I just have to call tomorrow and drive in to get it.)
gauze
gloves (home and school)
masks (home and school)
nebulizer kits, masks, filters (for home and school)
feeding tube kit (GI wants us to receive the extra kit at home and bring in when needed)

I guess now she is only supposed to eat 25 days out of the month or we are supposed to be reusing the bags and hoping they keep working. Also HOPE that Pharmaquip will let us keep using the pumps for a while (and not bill us).

Hmm does this sound like the highest level of service, on time, accurate, and leading to first choice for a DME? For me Apria was literally our LAST choice as a DME provider. We only came back to them because we had NO ONE else we could go to. I hate the fact that I have to realize my daughter is a very medically complex child. We work very hard to treat her like we do the other kids and like we would a normal and "healthy" child. I fully understand there are accommodations we have had to make for her, but I see her as close to normal as any of our other kids.