Got phone call from Apria asking if the order was complete, as they had autonotification that the package of Nestle Resource Dairy Nectar Thick had been dropped off at our house.
I told them that I work full time but would confirm the delivery when I got home.
June 21 6pm
I opened the box, hoping that our saga would be over.
Here’s a picture of the delivery, notice the photo includes their flyer saying “How are We Doing?”
I called Apria back urgently and said – this is not our correct order. We had ordered Nestle Resource Dairy Nectar Thick, not Nestle Resource Dairy HONEY Thick. They said they would call on Monday to determine what could be done.
June 21 9pm
I emailed VP at CareCentrix to let her know that we still hadn’t received the right order from Apria. Stay tuned, it gets funnier (I have an odd definition of funny).
June 24 10am
Apria called to let me know that they actually don’t carry Nestle Resource Dairy Nectar Thick, they only carry Nestle Resource Dairy HONEY Thick.
See here examples of the product – not very different. The manufacturing process is probably only “Add X amount of additional liquid to make Nectar instead of Honey”. Wait for the funny part:
Dairy Honey Thick
Dairy Nectar Thick
It’s made by the same company. One comes in purple, the other in blue.
They asked if I would be willing to take a different Nectar thick product like:
Apple Nectar Thick
So they asked for our pediatrician’s phone number to request a change to the prescription because Apple Nectar Thick is a different ordering code and thus needs different prescription.
In the meantime…… back on the planet of logic:
June 24 12pm
New company called me: GARANTHE MEDICAL SUPPLY from Norcross GA. They confirmed Alexis’ shipping address. They confirmed that we needed Nestle Resource Dairy Nectar Thick. They confirmed the quantity of 1/day. They confirmed they would be shipping a unit for the next day. And then that they would ship 2 more cases for a 3 month supply, then it would go month-to-month from there.
Wow!
June 25 6pm
I took this picture.
CareCentrix team called to confirm that we had gotten Alexis’ supply of the Nestle Resource Dairy Nectar Thick. I said yes, but not from Apria but from this new company: Garanthe Medical Supply. They said, “yes, we worked to get them started with Alexis’ case.”
Keep in mind, I did nothing to establish a relationship with Garanthe but thankfully CareCentrix went out their way to find a company who could supply Nestle Resource Dairy Nectar Thick for Alexis. Usually I have to send out requests to other parents to find out who supplies which product – so for me this was a great time saver after so many months without getting supply.
I do think it’s sad that it took so long for resolution but I have some observations:
1) Alexis needs very specific care, requiring a tremendous amount of coordination. While this was a particularly vexing issue for me. It wasn’t a life threatening situation. I know from Facebook and other parents – that there is the same run-around for all different sorts of reasons — many in urgent situations putting lives at risk.
2) There is no words to describe what I feel about Apria’s customer service – especially when I called on Friday at 6pm after they delivered the wrong item. They did not ship what was on the prescription for NECTAR. Instead they shipped HONEY. Now keep in mind, NECTAR is a thinner liquid than HONEY. So for a patient like Alexis, if they had shipped NECTAR instead of HONEY and she was only allowed HONEY – then this is very very dangerous (risk of aspiration / pneumonia / hospitalization). This is why patients and caregivers have to be tremendously vigilant about the prescriptions, medications received, medications administered ALL OF THE TIME.
3) I hate having to escalate to executives at companies but I will continue to do so as cases warrant. After six months of run around, my issue was resolved professionally in 8 days. I tallied at least 2 hours of waiting on hold with Apria, listening to random comments about how important my phone call was (Was it really important to them? Seth Godin has some comments: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/06/your-call-is-very-important-to-us.html )
4) Alexis is worth it all.