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| Volume 18, Issue 2 | Spring 2006 |
An Act of Kindness Peggy L. Morris, Project DirectorSpink County Public Transit Redfield, SD This is a story about a driver I wish I could clone. We all have touching and funny stories about our drivers' experiences of being a driver and dealing with the public. But to me this story of my driver, Jane, deserves to be recognized. Jane lives in rural Spink County as a farmer's wife and is a hard worker. Spink County Public Transit has a vehicle housed in the Conde area, 40 miles from the main office of Public Transit. Jane drives about three to four times a month. She comes to Redfield once a month to transport the local residents from this area to the Aberdeen area for shopping, medical and visiting. Jane had told the people she would get the bus and pick them up at the door. One of the ladies who was 91 at the time, decided to take off walking before Jane had reached the door of the store. Well, she tripped and fell down. Jane told her to stay put and she would call an ambulance. This little 91-year-old insisted she was fine and said no; so Jane loaded her on the bus and they finished their shopping for the day. All the while Jane kept an eye on her. As the day went on, Pryl kept moaning and Jane knew she was hurting. When they got back to Redfield, Jane got everyone home and insisted Pryl go to the hospital. Pryl agreed and Jane stayed with her. It was four hours later before they finally figured out that Pryl had broken her pelvis. Jane never left her side and then proceeded to call her son who lived in Aberdeen. Still, that wasn't enough. Jane was back down to Redfield four more times to check on Pryl and see to it her family got all her belongings plus all the things she had purchased while shopping that day. I felt Jane went above and beyond the call of duty by taking care of her clients. Pryl is no longer living alone, but in a home now and Jane still visits her from time to time. Jane is a class act and a gem to all of her riders. I feel so fortunate to have Jane as one of my drivers. As I said, many of your drivers could tell stories, whether it is a funny one or a serious one about an experience of a rider. Maybe drivers should start logging the ups and downs of their jobs and the stories to be told. Jane, there is a place for you next to the king in high places; in my book you are irreplaceable. Keep this in mind; our projects would be nothing if it wasn't for our dedicated drivers. This is what our programs are all about, making our riders feel safe, secure, and seeing to it they get to their destinations. Thank you Jane. "Cutting Edge Transit" Gary HeglandSURTC Fargo, ND On the front page of the winter issue of Dakota Transporter was an article by Scott Bogren titled, "Another Mobility Achievement." He noted that congress made non-emergency medical transportation a reimbursable expense to Medicaid. This is good news and can mean more opportunities for transit. However, do you know what exactly they are talking about? There is a recently prepared TCRP web-only document 29 (project B-27) online at http://trb.org/publications/tcrp/tcrp_webdoc_29.pdf. The title is "Cost Benefit Analysis of Providing Non-Emergency Medical Transportation." The first paragraph of the executive summary has a good definition of non-emergency medical transportation. Millions of Americans are considered to be "transportation disadvantaged," because they cannot provide or purchase their own transportation. As a result, this population--which is disproportionately elderly, poor, mobility-impaired, minority or some combination of these--depends on others to access employment, education, shopping, and healthcare. Because they depend on others for transportation, the persons in this population have reduced access to healthcare services, and this places them at risk for poor health outcomes. Lacking available or affordable transportation, they miss or postpone routine or preventive services, which can lead to a need for emergency care or preventable hospitalizations. For example, poorly managed asthma, a problem among children in the inner city with unique transportation barriers, can cause a major asthma episode (or attack). Access to nonemergency medical transportation (NEMT) can reduce emergency room and hospital expenditures for members of the transportation-disadvantaged population. What does this mean to our operations? It has the potential for increased ridership, more paperwork needed for government reimbursements, and the overall health conditions of your passengers may change. In addition, some people have complained about the timeliness of medical reimbursements, and there may be an increase in funds that qualify as local match. Now that you know what it is, you realize you have probably been providing some of those trips already. Now transit can get Medicaid to pay for many of these non-emergency medical trips. It follows that there may be more of these trips in the future. Here is an ad I found online from Bluefield Area Transit in Bluefield West Virginia. This is to give you an idea on how other communities are dealing with this opportunity. If you are already a Medicaid provider, this should be an easy transition or addition of medical reimbursed rides.
CTAA is going to have a special session on this subject at their 2006 annual conference in Orlando, FL. You can go to this website and review the agenda: www.ctaa.org/medconf2006/agenda.asp. The title is "National Conference on Medical Transportation: Mobile Communities are Healthy Communities." There may be more information disseminated after the conference about this subject. The DTA representatives that go to the conference plan on giving a report this fall at the DTA conference in Spearfish. According to "Cost Benefit Analysis of Providing Non-Emergency Medical Transportation," there are 3.6 million Americans who may fit into this category.The study identifies the numbers as 2,745,942 adults and 956,584 children, which brings a weighted estimate of 1.21 percent of the population. The 2005 census estimated population for North Dakota is 636,677. Multiplying that would indicate there are 7,703 residents of ND that fit that category. The 2005 census population for South Dakota is 775,933. Multiplying that out would indicate there are 9,388 residents of SD that fit that category. Keep in mind these numbers are derived from a sample and then projected to the whole. These numbers are an estimate based on the results from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). In conclusion, this is a new category of transportation disadvantaged customers who can get many of their medical trips paid by the government. There probably will be a net cost saving to society if these individuals get proper medical treatment earlier rather than later.
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