Southeast Gas Shortage Proved Dicey for Area Providers

ATLANTA–Both supply and prices eased last week, but a gasoline
shortage after Hurricane Ike took providers in some areas of the
Southeast by surprise.

Metropolitan Atlanta, where purveyors are required to sell
clean-burning fuel, was hard-hit after Hurricane Gustav closed oil
refineries along the Gulf Coast Sept. 1. Those operations were just
getting back online when some 25 Houston-area refineries that make
the city’s special blend were shut down again Sept. 13 by
Hurricane Ike.

As their pumps ran dry, gas stations around the city put plastic
bags over nozzles and replaced price signs with blanks to signal
they were out. For the next three weeks, two-hour lines were common
as commuters scrounged for fuel.

Prices skyrocketed along with the shortage, with some stations
charging $5 or more for regular (when it could be found). No other
grades, including premium, were available at all.

Other pockets around the Southeast were affected as well,
including Charlotte, Asheville and additional areas of North
Carolina and South Carolina; Nashville, Tenn.; and Anniston,
Ala.

According to Joe Ellington, director of patient services for
Marietta, Ga.-based Access HomeCare Services, the company’s
technicians “who use their own cars to do set-ups and repairs
had a few problems. They would call and say, ‘If I
don’t find gas, I may not be back.’ ”

Ellington said he had worked for FedEx when Atlanta faced a
previous gas shortage in 1983. “At that time, we had to cut
routes and cut part-timers. But in this industry, our patients are
in worse shape than we are,” he said.

So with one delivery van, a commercial credit card to the
QuikTrip convenience store chain and a delivery route with a
70-mile radius, the company set up a four-quadrant system to cut
down on mileage. Access Homecare’s deliveries, which extend
both north and east toward the Tennessee and Alabama state lines,
were curtailed to one quadrant per day.

Working within that system, Ellington said last week, “Our
delivery boy stays busy and hasn’t had to skip or bypass any
[deliveries].”

Another provider with even more ground to cover, Atlanta-based
Cornerstone Medical, which has 10 branches in Georgia, Florida and
Alabama, also kept a tight rein on service calls and deliveries.
With more than 20 vans and box trucks to fill up, Andrew Simmons
Jr., vice president of field operations, said the company asked
patients to understand that oxygen deliveries take precedence over
others.

“Our patients understand with the shortage, our delivery
is not on-demand. So far, they have been considerate of our
delivery processing, and some have offered to pick up their
supplies,” Simmons said.

He noted Cornerstone has faced gas issues before–namely the
drastic rise in price after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But Simmons
added that was short-lived compared to the post-Ike spike.

To protect its bottom line, Simmons said, “We looked into
using more gas-efficient vehicles. We decided not to in the end,
but with the Medicare reimbursement cuts, we did opt [to better the
efficiency ] of our routes.”

Cornerstone has also started giving additional training to the
patients with the first delivery, staying more time than normal in
homes to eliminate service calls later.

“It’s all about education,” Simmons said,
pointing out that the extended sessions also allow employees to
“bring a higher level of awareness to patients about gas and
reimbursements.”

Last week, Cornerstone employees were still using the first hour
of the workday to search the Internet for gas, coordinate and
re-prioritize routes around where gas was available and fill up
vans where they could.

Both of the Atlanta companies are accredited by The Joint
Commission, and say their required emergency/disaster plans
didn’t originally include a “disaster” of this
nature. But according to Simmons, anything out of the norm that
causes a change to routines or processes is considered a disaster,
and the gas shortage–which officials estimate could continue in
some areas for another week–called for unique measures.

Ellington said he had considered offering portable concentrators
to patients in outlying areas, and requiring patients within 20
miles of the office to pick up their supplies.

“There has to be give and take somewhere,” he
said.