Students requiring medical services not provided by the University Health Center can now take shuttles to off-campus appointments free of charge, thanks to a partnership between the Department of Transportation Services and the health center.
This program, which was launched in September, is intended “to provide transportation to students who may need to go off campus for specialty care, imaging” and other services not provided by the health center, Director David McBride wrote in an email.
Health center administrative assistant Danielle Lewis, who coordinates the shuttle program, said it was designed to assist students who may not be from the area or do not have a car and therefore have no other convenient means of reaching an off-campus doctor.
“Instead of having to pay a taxicab, or using an ambulance or waiting for a friend or a family member to come, [the health center] initiated this service to help students get off-campus to appointments,” Lewis said.
When sophomore government and politics major Meredith Lightstone suffered an eye ulcer several weeks ago, she was told the health center did not have the capability to properly treat her. However, the center offered to shuttle Lightstone to an ophthalmology specialist in Silver Spring.
“I had no idea that that was even an option,” Lightstone said. “I figured that I would have to get a taxi or call a friend to drive me.”
Lightstone said the health center also arranged her appointment in Silver Spring and transported her there in a matter of hours.
“Being an out-of-state student, it isn’t exactly easy to just go to Silver Spring to a doctor’s appointment without a car,” Lightstone said. “I thought the whole experience was great in terms of how they handled it.”
The health center has contracted DOTS to provide a university paratransit van for this program. Lewis said one van is designated to serve as the medical transit vehicle, and the appointments and transportation are coordinated by the health center.
“We show up when they ask us to show up and take people where they ask us to take people,” DOTS Director David Allen said. “We’re like a hammer to a carpenter, we’re just a tool.”
Lightstone said that while she did not experience any inefficiency, there seemed to be a disconnect between the shuttle drivers and the health center.
“It’s something that they could absolutely improve,” she said.
Lewis said the shuttle is late at times, but most students have been patient with the new program.
“If they don’t have any other transportation, and they don’t have to pay a cab, and it’s a free service, then they’re usually willing to wait,” she said.
McBride wrote that the program was proposed last year and funded through the student health center fee. Allen said that at the end of the year, a committee will evaluate the program to see how many rides have been provided and whether it will continue.
The program provides an average of two rides each business day, according to DOTS records, and McBride wrote that 77 total rides were provided for students in September and October.
Lewis is confident that the program will continue.
“It’s been going very well and I think that students are appreciating it,” she said. “It’s been a good partnership so far.”
