How does a non-ambulatory patient get home for the hospital?

[Deleted]

Insurance companies and Medicare will usually pay at least a major portion of getting someone to the ER.  But what if they are non-ambulatory and need to get home afterwards?

A friend has posted this dilemma on FB.  Her husband has had several strokes and is now essentially paralyzed.  She can only move him with a Hoyer lift.  His blood pressure was dangerously high when Home Health Care checked it, and even with his emergency bp medicine, it just kept going higher.  So HHC called an ambulance.  They have admitted him, but she is wondering how she is supposed to get him home.

I had this same question when my husband was so ill.  But he was ambulatory when he was well, just really weak when he wasn't.  The Fire Dept. helped put him in the car and the ER got him out, but I wasn't sure how I was going to get him home if he wasn't admitted.  Fortunately, they admitted DH and kept him for several days.  He was stronger but not better when they released him.  My son was going to have to help me otherwise.  But again, he was ambulatory but not strong enough to walk by himself.  And we had installed a walking ramp by that point so we made it.

This friend has discovered that the ambulance will charge her $800 to take him home that way.  She doesn't have it.  So she is trying to figure out what she can do.

My best guess is to have the hospital get him into the car.  Surely, THEY also have a Hoyer lift.  She has his sling.  Then get the Fire Department to get him out.  They have a Hoyer lift at home as well as a wheelchair.

Anyone have a better idea based on a similar experience?

[Sharon]

In our area there are medical transport vans.  They aren't an ambulance but a wheelchair equipped van that will transport patients to where ever.  We used one when my Mom was discharged from the hospital to a rehab center after hip replacement.  They loaded her up and took her to the care center for about $40.

[busymom]

We've got medical transport vans here, too, complete with a wheelchair lift.  Rides are a bit more expensive, though.  I'm thinking the last time my relative needed a ride, the cost was somewhere between $60 & $100.  

[Deleted]

This is really good information to know. I wonder if our area has them.  

[Artemis Windsong]

What size city do you live in?

I messaged my DD who is an EMT.  Maybe she has something.

[Deleted]

This isn't me. I live in the Birmingham metropolitan area although really a suburb.  She lives in a suburb further away but not that far from the hospital he is in.

If they do this in Birmingham, there is probably someone who does it in their area as well.  It might be really costly to go from some place like UAB in downtown Birmingham but not from their regional hospital to their house.

[stillmovingforward]

I live in a rural area. Our transit system has a bus (paratransit?) that will take you home as long as you have a wheel chair you can sit in.

[Sharon]

Google Non-emergency transportation and the area name.

[Deleted]

Jun 24, 2020 17:32:25 GMT -5 stillmovingforward said:

I live in a rural area. Our transit system has a bus (paratransit?) that will take you home as long as you have a wheel chair you can sit in.

I don't think the Birmingham transit system goes that far.  It is about 30 miles away.

[Deleted]

Jun 24, 2020 17:37:05 GMT -5 Sharon said:

Google Non-emergency transportation and the area name.

I did that but didn't come up with anything useful.  We are talking about someone paralyzed, remember.  There were a lot of entries to take you to the doctor, etc., but this is a little more complex.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I was transferred across Seattle by a medical transport van.  They picked me up in my hospital room and dropped me off in my room at the rehab center.  The van was in tremendous need of new shocks, I felt every pothole we hit!

Not sure how much it cost, my insurance paid it.

ETA:  My transport was organized by the hospital.  I’d try contacting them and ask them if they had an6 sources they used for this purpose.  There would have been no way that TD could get me to the rehab center from the hospital after they removed my first hip.  

[Artemis Windsong]

Ask the hospital social worker.

[jerseygirl]

My sister used medical transport several times. Drivers are trained to help patients. Sister was in rehab when she used this.
Suggest your friend call the hospital or a nearby rehab to get some Medical Transport contact details
Perhaps Medicare will cover cost. My sister had both Medicare and Medicaid and no cost to her

[Sharon]

Jun 24, 2020 17:39:31 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

Jun 24, 2020 17:37:05 GMT -5 Sharon said:

Google Non-emergency transportation and the area name.

I did that but didn't come up with anything useful.  We are talking about someone paralyzed, remember.  There were a lot of entries to take you to the doctor, etc., but this is a little more complex.

The hospital social services should be able assist.  They were the ones who suggested and then arranged for the van to pick up my Mom and take her to the rehab center.  They should have a list of companies that would provide the service needed for that situation.

[msventoux]

Does the hospital have any resources? It’s been years ago, but once when my mother was hospitalized and we had questions about dealing with her mobility issues at home, we asked a nurse. She sent someone to talk to us later that day about different options and community resources. Not sure if she was a volunteer or social worker, but she was helpful with providing suggestions of community resources.

[empress of self-improvement]

My plan, if I have to do that again with DH, is chain his chair to the back of the car and just pull him home. Barring that, medical transport. I did find out I can rent a wheelchair accessible vehicle in my area if I need to.  Massachusetts does have a paratransit program run by the MBTA but you have to be approved in advance and set up an account in order to use it.

[Artemis Windsong]

My DD said to call senior services. Senior Center.

[cronewitch]

We have cabulance which can bring people home on a bed or in a wheelchair. My ISO broke his pelvis and right hand and they sent him home in one. Mom was on Hospice at home when she needed to go to a doctor so we sent her in one. Expensive but if that is all you can do we couldn't bend mom because of pain.

[bookkeeper]

DH was in a wheelchair last December when we flew to Phoenix for the winter.  After we landed at the airport, we went outside to the cab cue.  There was a mini van that could fit a wheelchair in the line up.  What a blessing to see that van when I walked outside the door.

Good suggestions here about contacting the hospital social worker, cab company, public transit or medical transfer company. I was pondering this question too after DH's accident last fall. I was anticipating renting a wheelchair ready van to get him home the 3.5 hours from the hospital.  As it turned out, the PT department worked with DH daily on the car simulator so he was able to get in the car and sit for the ride home.  Bathroom breaks are something to consider, if you have to travel very far.  We drove home along interstate so we had the handicapped bathrooms at the rest stops.  He would not have been able to use gas station facilities with a wheel chair and a walker.

[Deleted]

Good suggestions, everyone.  I passed them along to her.