Katrina E. Williams
Northeast News

Do you need a ride to your next doctor’s appointment?

Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center is taking innovative steps to help transport their patients by working to assist them with the commute to and from their appointments.

By entering into a partnership with Circulation, a HIPAA-compliant digital platform software company, the health center is able to offer their patients more transportation options. Samuel U. Rodgers is the first community health center in the Kansas City area to offer this service. The program was piloted in April of 2017.

The partnership between Samuel U. Rodgers and Circulation was made possible through a grant from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, an organization that strives to create equal healthcare opportunities in underserved populations. Chris Walker, Chief Financial Officer of Samuel U. Rodgers, says that the number of people utilizing the new transportation scheduling program has continued to increase since its inception.

“Dr. Samuel Rodgers, founder of the Healthcare Center, believed that health care was a basic human right. He was a visionary that fought to make high quality, compassionate, affordable health care accessible for all people,” said Randy Withers, Community and Marketing Director at the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center. “He also realized the critical role transportation could play. He kept a fleet of vehicles at the Health Center, with drivers ready to transport those in need.”

Each year, approximately 3.6 million Americans miss at least one health care appointment due to transportation conflicts. Additionally, over $6.5 billion in transportation costs are billed annually to Medicare and Medicaid alone. This partnership will not only assist the patients of the health center, but may also help to lower the cost billed to those organizations. According to Circulation’s website, the use of its program has been statistically shown to lower the rate of missed appointments from 20% to as low as 8%.

“If someone lacks a means of transportation to get to their appointment, it doesn’t matter if the distance is one mile or four,” said Withers. “This is another way for us to eliminate obstacles that stand between our patients and their quality care.”

The health center still has in-house transportation, but with the addition of the Circulation partnership they have broadened their ability to meet the needs of their patients.

“Like everything else Dr. Rodgers did, it was all in the name of ensuring access to high quality health care for all people,” Withers added. “It was true 50 years ago. Thanks to our partnership with Circulation, it remains true today. “