BLACKOUT

After the lights went out, Marty Maduro, a Medigas customer service representative in Newmarket, Ontario, rigged his location's phone system to run off his car battery. “This enabled us to keep an open dialogue with our clients and continue to call everyone on our disaster list,” says George Ristevski, president of Medigas parent Praxair Healthcare Services, based in Danbury, Conn.

After the lights went out, Rochelle Arini-Monza, an Apria Healthcare branch manager in Troy, Mich., worked from her car and took orders by candlelight so drivers could be dispatched. Ryder Trucks faxed a list of fuel locations and set up a special account for the company's Michigan branches in case gas was needed.

After the lights went out, Zeb Pirzada, CEO of Medstar Surgical in College Point (Queens), N.Y., worked from a paper log of his critical patients. He and his staff contacted drivers by Nextel radios to get them on the road. As some lights in New York came back on the next morning, “we were already there delivering oxygen,” Pirzada says. He adds that the company not only took care of its own clients but assisted competitors' customers as well.

The Blackout of 2003, the biggest in U.S. history, began on Thursday, Aug. 14, eventually covering 9,600 square miles and leaving 50 million people without electricity in eight states and parts of southern Canada. National, regional and local providers alike sprang into action when the power went off. While independent dealers attempted to keep customers comfortable and secure, their efforts were hindered by the loss of phone service. Larger providers put emergency procedures into play and coordinated resources across the area.

“Literally, tens of thousands of Apria patients on oxygen, ventilators, apnea monitors, infusion/enteral pumps and nebulizers were without power,” says Lisa Getson, executive vice president, business development/clinical services for the Costa Mesa, Calif.-basedprovider. “Over 50 of our own branches and infusion pharmacies and their employees were personally affected, yet they pulled together in the crisis and no patient care issues resulted at all.”

Here at HomeCare, we received similar reports from our readers by phone, e-mail and letter telling us of providers' overwhelming response to the blackout. Their actions, all praiseworthy, prove that HME providers are not afraid of the dark — and they can operate in it, too. Here are just a few of their stories.