There comes a time in everyone’s life when an emergency arises and we have to dial 911. It’s pretty simple, we know what to do. It’s been ingrained in our minds since childhood: When you need help call 911 and the ambulance will come and get you! However, when it’s past the emergency and you don’t need to dial 911 to get to an Emergency Room but you need to go to a doctor but no cab will help you from your wheelchair with your oxygen tank, what do you do? How do you get your child who may be in a full body cast to that orthopedic surgeon? How do you bring home Mom to live out her last days with family when she can’t sit up? You certainly can’t call 911 since you know it’s not an emergency, but where do you turn? You call a non emergency medical transportation company.

Commercial ambulance companies have been around providing services to patients in need not just in an emergency setting. Commercial ambulance services provide continuous monitoring of their patients on a stretcher en-route to hospital visits, doctor’s office checkups, home transport, dialysis and more! On these ambulance are two trained Emergency Medical Technicians (or Paramedics depending on the level of acuity and care you require during transport) who have been certified by your state Department of Health to safely transport you from point A to point B while providing all necessary monitoring and care.

From something as simple as oxygen administration, to more advanced care such as chronic ventilator management or deep tracheostomy suctioning these EMT’s and Paramedics are there to care for you. Many people attach a stigma to an ambulance thinking that they are only for emergencies. However, the times have changed and these ambulances are here to provide additional services to you in your times of need.

You may be sitting there thinking, well I don’t need an ambulance for my mom, but my mom is in a wheelchair and she can’t simply get in and out of it to get herself to doctor’s appointment! Thankfully, more and more programs have been built along services provided by Ambulette Companies, also known as Wheelchair Vans, or Senior Transport Vans. These services are provided through local commercial agencies that have specially trained men and women who know all the ins and outs of operating a wheelchair, walker and more to assist your loved ones with their transportation needs to doctor’s offices, hospital visits (non-emergency of course) and other varying appointments.

Most of these ambulettes have wheelchair lifts that safely lift your loved one’s into the van/bus so they never have to be removed from their chair. These services not only include the ride, but the safe dropping off of your loved one inside the office and scheduling a time to pick them up and take them back home. These services have been added to alleviate some of the stress people feel when they can’t drive themselves, and they require too much assistance to take a cab.