If it hadn't been for his dad, Chris Depew might never have come up with the idea for the Respiratory Equipment Supply Team, or R.E.S.T.
Depew's dad loves to travel, but his enthusiasm dimmed considerably when he had to take along his continuous positive airway pressure device. He found the whole process — carting along the unit, trying to get through airline security and getting it on the plane, then repeating the process to get home — frustrating and embarrassing, Depew said.
When he had to open the box, take everything out and explain it to security officers for one trip, it was the last straw. He stopped using it on his travels. “And then he was out of compliance,” Depew says, adding that his father had also tried checking the equipment with his luggage, but it got broken.
Depew wanted to make traveling easier for his dad — and for other CPAP users with similar travel travails he met through his former job as a branch operations manager for Apria. What would happen, he wondered, if there was a company that would send a CPAP and disposable supplies to a traveler's destination?
Now, there is.
In April, Depew and two partners opened R.E.S.T. in Reno, Nev. Depew handles the marketing, while Marlette Gutierrez, whose background is in customer service, directs administrative services and Marshall Mowery, a respiratory therapist, is the director of clinical service.
After servicing their first customer, Depew says he is certain of one thing: “This is the future.”
‘This Is a New Market’
From the beginning, Depew and his two partners knew they were charting new territory.
“This is a new market. We're not just another company out there in another niche. We are pioneering a new market,” says Depew.
There was no blueprint for their business, no tried-and-true model to follow. They took it slow, polling physicians, sleep labs, sleep techs, hotels, cruise ships, the American Sleep Apnea Association, vendors and, of course, Depew's dad, for constructive criticism and suggestions.
“We just put it out there — what if there was a company that would provide this — and people were blown away,” says Depew, adding, “It's been very well received. We got a ton of support and no negative responses.”
Encouraged, the three decided to move ahead with the idea, which was relatively simple: Send a preset CPAP unit with humidification as well as a disposable mask, filter and tubing to a traveler's destination. The customer fills the chamber with the bottle of water, plugs it in and uses it.
When the customer is done using the equipment, he or she tosses out the disposable items such as the mask, packs up the remaining equipment in a pre-addressed, postage-paid box and leaves it to be mailed at the hotel's front desk.
The charge is about $150 for a week's use, not including shipping. “We want to make it easy and we want to make it affordable,” Depew says, noting that the latter is especially important because the company will not accept Medicare or insurance, but it will take Visa or MasterCard.
The logistics took a little longer to settle on, but Depew says the system works this way: The customer gives seven days' notice, their destination, arrival and return dates, physician contact information and mask size. They can also request specific masks or equipment. (R.E.S.T. has contracts with ResMed, Respironics, Fisher & Paykel and Puritan Bennett.)
R.E.S.T. sends an order form to the physician with a brief summary of what the patient is requesting and what the company does. Once the order form is returned, Mowery presets the unit and tests everything to make sure it works. The device and supplies are packaged with a statement, return shipping label and instructions, as well as a quality instruction form and a 24/7 contact number, then overnighted to the customer's destination.
“You've got to keep the customer in the loop,” Depew says, noting that he calls the customer to reconfirm dates and other information prior to shipping off the device. Once he's determined that the CPAP has arrived at the destination, he calls the customer again and passes along a contact name for package pickup.
“We follow up with all the patients before and after,” says Depew. “This is standard procedure. If there is an issue, I want to get on the issue right away. If there's an issue at the other end with the hotel not cooperating, I want to know that as well.”
He's eager for feedback, too. “I want to know [if] it was easy to use. Was it packed correctly, was anything broken, did it work great, was it easy to send back?”
At press time, R.E.S.T.'s first customer had not returned from her flight to Miami and a cruise from there to the Bahamas. Depew was eager to visit with her to see how the process worked. But from her first contact, Depew says, she was enthusiastic about the new service.
“She was just ecstatic,” he says. “She said, ‘This is a huge burden you've taken off my shoulders. It's one less headache I have to worry about. If you guys did luggage, it would make my trip even easier.’”
Depew chuckles, recalling how excited the customer was when he called to tell her the device had arrived at her hotel in a handy carry box. “She was ranting and raving [about how helpful the service is] and she said, ‘I'm not even there yet!’”
R.E.S.T. was also working with another client who will be traveling to Kansas, according to Depew.
Into the Future
Two customers in several weeks — it might not seem much to most providers, but Depew and his partners are delighted.
“I'm glad it's slow going so we can work through any problems,” Depew says, “but so far we haven't had any.”
He's deliberately held back on marketing the business to allow for problem-solving, he says: “Let's get the ball rolling slowly so we can maintain it and keep it under control.”
The company has, however, sent post cards to sleep labs across the country, “and we are receiving inquiries already,” Depew says.
Once consumer marketing gets going, the initial campaign will likely focus on Las Vegas, one of the country's most visited cities, where Depew expects most of R.E.S.T.'s business to originate. Still, he's getting interest from some unlikely sources in some unlikely places. As word about the new company has leaked out, Depew has gotten calls from other HME companies asking R.E.S.T. to service their traveling clients.
“A lot of DME companies, small mom-and-pops in Texas and Ohio, are asking us to service their patients,” he says. “I really anticipate this taking off … once we get the ads out in newspapers and magazines.”
He's well aware, however, that a good idea doesn't fly long if it's not undergirded with good service. Indeed, Depew is convinced it will be the customer service that ultimately sells the program.
“Service is the deciding factor,” he says. “We want to really sell ourselves on the service we provide. We want to be very service-oriented and accessible.”
What does Depew think the future of R.E.S.T. will ultimately be? For one thing, he suspects it might have a slightly larger scope. Even before they officially opened their doors, the partners were being pressed by manufacturers and others to widen their scope to include portable oxygen, Depew says.
But he and his partners are holding back on that. “We've got to make sure we're perfect at what we are doing,” Depew says. “We've gotten a lot of good support. But the biggest challenge is being a small, unique company and letting people know what we are doing.”
Still, there is room for growth just in the CPAP arena. “We are going to offer travel packages to assist people who go abroad,” he says, noting the company is exploring such issues as shipping times, going through customs and other potential pitfalls.
R.E.S.T. is also planning to service outdoor travel so that people can take their CPAPs camping.
Depew suspects, he says, that once R.E.S.T. is firmly established, copycats will spring up. That's OK by him. “If we know we created the footprint and they want to follow us, that's great,” he offers.
The point is, he says, that people can lead fuller lives.
“I just want to make it easy for people. I want people to be able to say, ‘I traveled and I had a great time.’”
