Apria President Quits Amid Bid to Sell Firm

COSTA MESA —  Apria Healthcare Group Inc. said Monday that Steven T. Plochocki has quit as president and chief operating officer amid the home health care company’s struggle to boost its flagging financial returns and find a buyer.

Apria said Plochocki, who could not be reached for comment, resigned to pursue other interests. Jeremy M. Jones, the company’s chairman and chief executive, will assume Plochocki’s duties until a successor is named.

Plochocki, 45, is a former Abbey Healthcare Group executive who became Apria’s chief operating officer shortly after Apria was created in the 1995 merger of Abbey and Homedco Group Inc., two Orange County-based rivals.

He later assumed the additional role of president overseeing such areas as computer systems, field operations, sales, marketing and clinical services.

Apria has yet to wring benefits from the merger, and its stock price sunk to its lowest point in six months Friday before gaining 50 cents a share Monday to close at $13.75 in heavy New York Stock Exchange trading. About 1.8 million shares changed hands--six times the recent daily average.

Plochocki’s resignation is “just an indication of how much turmoil the company is still in two years following the merger,” said A. Lanny Thorndike, an analyst at William Blair & Co. in Chicago.

Though Apria encountered huge difficulties in integrating the disparate billing and computer systems of the combined companies, it is not clear that Plochocki was the person at fault, analysts said. “I’m not sure how much blame you can lay at anyone’s feet,” Thorndike said.

Analysts expressed some surprise that Plochocki is not staying through the process of the company’s hoped-for sale.

“It would seem there is some bitterness or anger involved,” said analyst Ann Logue of Volpe Welty Co. in San Francisco. “It’s not unusual for an officer to announce he’s leaving after a merger, but he’s not staying through the transition.”

An Apria spokeswoman said the company’s investment banker, from Goldman Sachs & Co., expects to narrow its search for a buyer in October.

Apria provides such home care services nationwide as respiratory therapy, home infusion and home medical equipment through 350 locations.