Via Christi Health - CareVan Transportation Program

What is it?

Mt. Carmel has historically reached out to meet the needs of a region documented to be poor, elderly, and underserved. The Mt. Carmel CareVan Transportation Program is such an example, created to meet the need for rides to non-emergency medical appointments in an economically disadvantaged, medically underserved region. There are no fees to ride CareVan; however, donations are accepted.

Who is it for?

With a few exceptions, riders fall into three scenarios: being too ill to drive, being too ill and too elderly to drive, and being too poor to drive. Many riders, knowing they can count on CareVan, have chosen to remain in their homes longer, confident that should they need medical transportation, it will be available. Adult children call in from distant states to make doctor's appointments for their elderly parents. And, numerous times, with a simple knock on the door or extra look through a window, CareVan drivers have been heroically responsible for identifying persons in crisis and assisting them until emergency help could arrive.

Why do they do it?

Hospital staff frequently encountered patients who had walked to the hospital for treatment, or were brought to the hospital by ambulance with no way home. Staff members frequently took it upon themselves to assist where they could. The situation was also dire for the elderly and the infirm, who, for lack of transportation, were not able to access and receive the basic medical attention they needed. Others had to relocate from their life-long residence to assisted living and nursing homes to get the care they needed.

Responding to the critical need for medical transportation, Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center diverted much of its modest marketing budget in 1992 to establish CareVan, a medical transportation program employing a single, used van and a part-time driver. When the first wheelchair-accessible van and full-time driver were added later that year, ride requests skyrocketed and there were stories from patients who had literally been trapped inside their homes for years because of their disabilities, without the health care services they needed.

Impact

Today, 14 years and millions of passenger miles later, CareVan remains the primary provider of medical transportation for the ill and those with disabilities in southeast Kansas. The service now operates with seven drivers and a fleet of eight radio dispatched vans, five of which are wheelchair lifts, handicapped-accessible vans. The program's vans logged nearly 223,000 miles and transported more than 16,000 (round trip) passengers in 2006.

Contact: Robbi Pazzie
CareVan Manager
Telephone: 620-232-0388
E-mail: Robbi.Pazzie@viachristi.org