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Victims of Recent Hurricanes Can Breathe a Bit Easier Now: Apria Healthcare Delivers Essential Oxygen Equipment to Those Impacted by Harvey and IrmaIn response to Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, Apria Healthcare Group, one of the nation's largest home healthcare companies, mobilized relief efforts to deliver critically needed equipment in the affected areas. Due to these devastating storms, prescribed oxygen patients were adversely affected without access to the oxygen they require. Apria immediately activated its Emergency Preparedness Plan to prepare local branches and serve the hundreds of critical respiratory patients impacted in the wake of these natural disasters. With emergency authorization granted by Texas and Florida officials, staging areas outside the direct path of the two storms were established, and Apria immediately began dispensing oxygen to patients, evacuees in shelters, and others in need of life-sustaining respiratory therapy. Demonstrating Apria's commitment to its patients' well-being, plans were implemented well in advance to ensure adequate availability of equipment. Throughout the recovery process, Apria's emergency protocol maintained optimal effectiveness of its field operations, enabling proactive responses and ensuring that essential deliveries were made safely and effectively. "Our team was dedicated to making sure that our customers had the best possible outcome. Everyone on the team was directly impacted by this storm in some way so we understood the pain that people were experiencing," said James Wimer, Market Vice President, Greater Florida arket. "It gave each of us a personal connection to help our customers through this. That connection also allowed the team to see the positive impact that we had. Our planning and communication inside and outside of the company paid off." Nationally, Apria initiated a company-wide effort to provide emergency assistance for employees who live and work in the areas affected. All donations raised through two GoFundMe campaigns-one campaign for each hurricane-will be directly distributed 100% to affected employees. Apria has already contributed $25,000 to each fundraiser and will match employee donations up to $50,000 for both campaigns. In just over three weeks, Apria employees have donated a total of $30,290 to support their colleagues in Texas, which the company will also match. These funds will help affected employees by providing emergency relief for living expenses, home repair or replacement, and to assist with replacement of personal belongings. Additionally, Apria is supporting community and humanitarian relief efforts with shipments of clothing, shoes, and hygiene items contributed by its employees to two Red Cross shelters in Dallas-Fort Worth. For more information on Apria visit www.apria.com. About Apria Healthcare Group Inc. Apria is a privately held company owned by a group of investment limited partnerships managed by affiliates of Blackstone (NYSE:BX). Through its Apria Healthcare LLC operating unit, Apria provides home respiratory therapy, negative pressure wound therapy, home enteral nutrition therapy and support, and home medical equipment through more than 350 locations throughout the continental United States and Hawaii and serves more than 1.8 million patients each year. As one of the nation's largest and leading home healthcare companies, Apria was the first company of its type to obtain voluntary accreditation from The Joint Commission and has been continuously accredited for more than 25 years. For more information, visit www.apria.com.
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