Hero Health Tracking Order Status

Hero Health the Medical Dispenser has made a stupid move and ruined their subscription product! They have removed the web app and now you have to rely on a stupid phone app that is useless. Using web app it was simple to change medication, change time, edit time, and print out medicine schedules for new doctors. It was easy to print out a list of medication in a 911 call for the emergency responders! They have removed this feature for NO REASON the web app just worked and never glitched or required an update! They turned it off and forcing you to use a mobile app that is difficult to navigate, manage, and no way to print out medications at all! DO NOT USE THIS MEDICINE DISPENSER IT IS NO LONGER WORTH IT!

I was a huge fan of the HERO medication machine until my mother had a stroke and had to be moved to a nursing facility. When I called to cancel my subscription and return the machine, I was told there would be a $360 cancellation fee. Elderly patients with illnesses such as dementia are their target market. With this in mind, why is there a fee to cancel the subscription? My mother's living situation changed and she is no longer able to use the machine. I was a huge fan until this. If you know for sure your 86 year old family member with dementia will not have a chance in level of care needed, then this machine is for you. Otherwise, steer clear! I will add it to the list of companies that take advantage of people in our situation.

Do not recommend for a dementia patient. Steer clear, learn from me! The machine is very rigid and does not accommodate the pre-existing routine (routine is so important in dementia). My dad needed pills to come out first, and then to do his outside-Hero eye drops. Hero refused to accommodate this, leading me to delete the outside-Hero meds. Hero will not accommodate the order in which you want to take your meds. Not that it was easy to talk with them about this. It's disingenuous to advertise 24/7 "Live" support, when this is an AI chatbot, reaching a real human takes 3 hours during the week or 48 hours over the weekend. They have hidden their phone number from the "Contact Us" section of their website, directing everything to the monstrosity of an AI chatbot. Busy caregivers need to talk to a human, immediately. Someone in this space who has excellent customer support is JubileeTV. I love them, and I love them because of their commitment to genuine customer service. It's like night and day comparing these two experiences with complex gadgets. There is a major graphical interface issue with the device from the eyes of the cognitively impaired. The "button" on screen is designed exactly like a button, but it's not touch-screen. Which is fine, not to have touch screen, but then the graphical interface needs to be properly designed. There's a cognitive step required to draw the inference between the Continue and Dispense "buttons" on the screen that aren't touchscreen and pushing the mechanical button down below. When I brought this up with customer service, I was told by a salty rep that I was informed before I purchased that it was not touch screen. Next, caregivers need to know there is no way to remotely independently verify discrepancies between what their person says and what the machine says. The machine said it distributed my dad's morning dose. He said it didn't. I had no way of knowing without being there. Well, turns out he was right and the machine malfunctioned. Fun! This was a hugely disappointing experience. Now I have disrupted my dad's medication routine, which wasn't really working, but sort of was, caused my dad all of this upset, all for something that I hoped would improve things but has actually made things worse, and that Hero won't work with me to fix (because they're impossible to reach). Great idea in theory, horrible in execution. I will tell everyone who will listen to me not to go down this road.

I have had my Hero Health machine for almost 5 years now and until just recently, have had very few problems with the machine. I am considered a "Legacy" customer by Hero Health due to the fact that I was one of the original owners of the machine. In the beginning, Hero Health offered the machine at approximately $400 to it's customers and with it, they covered the monthly membership fee which included the software (accessed through wifi) that identified/dispensed the medications. Recently however, my machine started showing errors, before the machine actually attempted to disburse the medications, and the error message stated that I had to call Technical Support to clear. When speaking with Technical Support, they explained that I owned the machine longer than the 2-year warranty on the product and that they no longer supported the machine. I responded that I noticed that their ads were still advertising the same model that I owned and they changed their response to say that they were no longer repairing their machines and that I could not pay to repair any "mechanical" problems the machine may be experiencing. Their answer was for me to dispose of the machine and pay them $45/month to lease another machine (only the "Legacy" customers were allowed to purchase the machine - they quickly changed their program after the machine started generating interest to a lease program that included the cost of the membership). I started monitoring my machine and found that it didn't matter what the size or shape of the pill being dispensed, it generated the error after the first pill that was dispensed, and it also didn't matter which cell, of the 9 cells, the medication was being dispensed from, only solidifying my suspicion that the problem was not mechanical, but software related. Being software related, it would be the company, Hero Health, that would be the only one at issue, not the machine, leaving me to wonder if the company was attempting to discontinue my use of the machine I actually owned, not one that I was paying a monthly lease for. I sent an email to Customer Support at Hero Health, explaining my disappointment in their response, with them considering me a "Legacy" customer and not even providing a discount/incentive to go ahead and keep using a new machine by paying the monthly $45 lease. They sent me a response, requesting that I give them additional time to answer my email but then I never heard back. Although I might understand that they no longer wanted to have units with customers that paid more than $400 up front for their units, the method they have used to pursue getting rid of their long-time customers was anything but decent and honest. They could have easily said that I would need to start paying the $8.99/monthly for the membership fee and have me pay to fix any "mechanical" problems with the unit, but then they would lose the $45/month they are now charging for the lease of the unit. Unfortunately, Hero Health was the one who designated customers like myself as "Legacy" customers because we took the chance to put down more than $400 in the beginning to basically test a new product on the market - only to be thrown away when that product became popular. Not very honest or in the very least, decent.

For the most part the HERO medication dispenser, does it job well, it dispenses medication, but if you’re like me and don’t necessarily care about the adherence percentage, but it bothers you to see the numbers are off because the machine has made errors that you can’t fix is a bit frustrating. One of my primary reasons for getting HERO was the medication count. When I setup the machine I sat on the floor with a letter opener and colored and white paper (to offset the medication colors) to count medication. I felt like a real pharmacist. I input the numbers into the app and put the pills in the machine when it was time. Two weeks later, there is no count. Its count is ‘estimating’, medium, low, or high. To fix this, I must recount the medication and re-input the numbers in the machine. Here’s to hoping it’s that easy and I don’t have delete medications entirely, again. Secondly, I wanted to be able to “remotely” give a medication away from home. Their use of remote is a misnomer at best. You should probably think of ‘a remote,’ versus “remote” dispensing. My son uses a PRN (as needed) medication and this feature excited me, then real life. The feature only tells the main unit to release any medications that you have previously scheduled. PRN medications can be added and dispensed through HERO, but they can only be accessed through the main unit. Which is weird because it defies what remote has come to mean and there are many elderly people who use PRN medications. As a care giver or parent; whatever one’s role. I would think this should be desired as an option. HERO, “remotes,” into its machines all the time. I would think they would appreciate, “remoting.” LOL 1. The “remote” dispense does not always dispense. 2. Medication(s) taken outside of HERO aren’t always recorded as taken. 3. You can’t schedule once a month medication. 4. The unit does not always record dispensed/scheduled medication accurately. 5. You cannot fix, manage, or change any inaccurate information once it is posted. 6. The functionality of the app and manger-user’s ability to function in it is extremely limited. 7. Often you must completely delete a medication to resolve minor issues. As stated, the HERO serves its main function well. However, if seeing pie charts with percentages, receiving insight-based adherence or lack thereof along with limited app functionality and the inability to correct machine errors you may want to look for a different option. My advice to HERO would be to offer different levels of management. Not everybody is technically unsavvy. There are many older persons who have kept-up and are quite astute and there are many potential customers who don’t like limitations or inaccurate information. Hence the suggestion for an app with different management levels so that you can reach a broader customer base.