Meritus Health’s efforts have enabled Joan Yarrick and hundreds of other patients to get to medical appointments they would have missed due to a lack of transportation.
Yarick moved to Hagerstown 10 years ago, leaving his car in California, and relied on public and free transportation to get to doctors’ appointments, but it was unreliable and inconvenient.
“Then I noticed there was a Meritus van in my neighborhood,” the Baltimore native says, “so the next time we had an appointment to meet, I asked about Meritus.”
Yarrick was one of the early adopters of the Meritus Transportation Initiative this year, as Meritus leaders continued to identify a lack of transportation as a barrier to community members receiving care, they investigated the issue further.
“We are committed to ensuring that no one in Washington County, under any circumstances, misses a medical appointment due to transportation issues,” said Maulik Joshi, president and CEO of Meritus. “Understanding the barriers to receiving critical care is paramount to improving the health of our community, and we will continue to develop and expand our programs to support the needs of our community.”
Meritus has a fleet of eight vans, and medical appointment scheduling staff can ask patients if they need transportation and arrange a ride no matter where they are going in the health system. The service is already averaging more than 300 rides per week, translating to more than 15,000 free rides per year.
Meritus Transportation services are a response to a problem repeatedly raised by survey respondents in the Healthy Washington County FY 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment: transportation to outpatient medical services is a barrier for patients who don’t have independent transportation.
The expansion was made possible with the support of Maryland Physicians Care (MPC), a regional managed care organization owned in part by Meritus Health and three other hospitals in the state.
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“As Washington County’s largest Medicaid managed care organization, MPC has many members who lack transportation access,” said MPC CEO Jason Rottman. “Transportation is critical to our members’ ability to receive care, including access to primary care, specialty care and medications. The transportation infrastructure Meritus Health has built is a game-changing improvement not only for MPC’s members, but also for other Washington County residents who lack transportation access.”
Meritus provides safe, reliable transportation for patients who don’t have access to a vehicle or are unable to drive, have a short-term injury or driving limitation, use a wheelchair, or need mobility assistance that public transportation can’t provide.
Meanwhile, Yaric plans to continue using the free van service until all of her physical therapy appointments are over this summer. In the meantime, she’s made friends with a few drivers who have made special arrangements to get her from her home to her appointments.
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For more information about free transportation to medical appointments, please call the Meritus Reservations Center at 301-790-9355.
