Don't believe the 24-7 hours of support they claim. HOME HEALTH services availability claim of…read more 24-7 is not true. I called their HOME HEALTH 24-7 number, 603-681-3500, at 7:45 am and got a recording the call was being transferred. then, i listened to music for the next 5 minutes. no one answers the phone! i tried a 2nd time and again NO ONE ANSWERS!
i called the main number, 603-893-2900, several times and no one could help me. i asked for the RN on duty and she transferred to yet another voicemail in orthotics! the poor receptionist (who was very nice BTW) tried connecting me to Emily, director of HOME HEALTH and I got voice mail. i called back again and was finally connected me to the secretary of the CEO, Stephanie, who tried to patch me through to the director of the HOME HEALTH CARE DEPT.
Weeelllll...... it took the CEO's secretary almost 15 minutes to find the head of HOME HEALTH CARE so we could do a 3 way conversation. i'm writing as this is happening. what a circus! I finally spoke to Emily, director of HOME HEALTH CARE, who FINALLY connected me to Mary, manager of HOME HEALTH, who said she wasn't the RN on duty but could fill in for her. who knows where's the on-duty RN??
the whole rigmarole took 45 minutes. unacceptable!
i asked Emily why all this happened because she ought to know i was going to say bad things about her company unless they can explain this meltdown. she said she'd follow up with me after she investigates and i'll post an update if she actually does.
this company might be ok for hospital rehab services, but from my experience, they do NOT provide 24-7 HOME HEALTH CARE support. have a back up plan if you use them for home rehab...
UPDATE #1: i've not heard from the director yet (Emily) but here's what happened: Mary, the manager of HOME HEALTH asked me a lot of questions and said she'd call my doctor, then call my visiting nurse and then call me back. exactly one hour later, she called back and started asking a lot of the same questions. i asked her exactly what i was waiting on and she said "nothing"!? i reminded her that she said she'd call my nurse and doctor. she said she called both but the nurse can't come unless she gets permission for her to come today, Wednesday, instead of their next appointment day, which is Thursday. I see all my docs on Friday and am aghast that it's such a big deal for the visiting nurse to come 24 hours early to see if my issue is really a major concern.
as a side note, Mary was just going blah, blah, blah. so i hung up and called the doctor's office myself. if that's what has to be done, i wanted to make sure it got done. i asked the doctor's office if they would give permission for the visiting nurse to come a day early because the HOME HEALTH nurse had not done so!! this begs the question: what the heck did Mary talk about when she called my doctor? apparently she didn't ask for the OK to come today instead of tomorrow. i'm not dealing with "Mary" anymore. that's a dereliction of duty for her not to ask.
my doctor's admin said, "oh, sorry, the doctor is in a meeting. she texted me and i'm waiting for her to get out of her meeting to ask that." that was almost an hour ago. so i called the department in Faulkner Hospital where the doctor practices and asked them if any of the doctor's peers could give the ok? Answer: "NO, only your doctor can do that." my response, "ok, well, if my doctor is too busy to send a text giving permission for the visiting nurse, then i'm FIRING MY DOCTOR."
(that of course has nothing to do with HOME HEALTH CARE at NORTHEAST REHAB but i just threw it in anyway.)
amazing: just to get the nurse here 24 hours early, i'm considering firing my doctor who seems to be ignoring my pleas for help because she's in a "meeting". my doc's office is 50 miles away (in Mass) and i'm not supposed to drive (doctor's orders). of course, they asked if i could drive down. the answer, "not today."
UPDATE #2: the doc just called me and is sending the visiting nurse over today to check things out. it is pretty unbelievable that i had to go through 3.5 hours of bull sh*t just to get a visiting nurse to come over and look at my wound 24 hours earlier than planned...
UPDATE #3: well, apparently the manager of HOME HEALTH, Mary, has decided that no one there feels "safe" to come over to see my wounds. No one would tell me what was happening until my doctor called to tell me. Wow, i'm 64 year old woman, living alone, who just had surgery and they don't feel "safe" coming to see me because i vocalized my unhappiness about spending HOURS trying to get ahold of them.