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p.r.n. Offers "Ambulette" Service
by Lois Thomson
(Second of a two-part series on p.r.n. Health Services.)
Last month we learned about p.r.n. Health Services, an organization that provides high-quality, in-house care for people of all ages. Whether the request is as extensive as a private duty nurse who spends all day in the home, or as relatively simple as bathing patients and putting them to bed, p.r.n. can be counted on to handle the appeal.
p.r.n. works hard to first learn—and then meet—the needs of its patients, and this is evident in one of its latest offerings: the "ambulette" service. Gina Luffy, president of p.r.n., explains: "We developed a non-medical transport company. We provide for people who need transportation but not an ambulance; for those who are too ill to ride in Access but not ill enough for an ambulance. It's like hiring a private car."
As an example, Luffy mentioned a person who perhaps lives at home and needs to go to a doctor appointment, but can't make it out of the house on his or her own. "We have crews who will come into the house and get the person out, whether it's in a wheelchair or stretcher, or just on somebody's arm. We call it our 'ambulette' service."
But the situation may not always be as simple as that. And for those cases, p.r.n. has purchased a unique type of chair. "The biggest problem is getting people downstairs," Luffy said. "We may have some people on the second floor who haven't left their home in years. So we purchased a stair chair."
She described the chair as resembling a thin wheelchair that a person sits in, held in snugly with a seat belt. "It has wheels like a conveyer belt, like a tractor," she continued, "and it creeps down the steps. The chair tilts back and there's a person in front and one in the back to guide it down the stairs. There's a big need for this; and it's very exciting for (the patients) because some of them haven't been out of the house for years."
Luffy said p.r.n. developed its new transport system back in January by talking with both medical and transportation specialists to determine how to best combine the two needs. She said, "One of the questions discussed was, 'Who can't go out and why?' And the answer was that the barrier is stairs. So we found this chair and bought a few for our service."
However, not everyone who uses p.r.n. has a need for the chair. "There are a number of reasons why people need assisted transport," Luffy said. "We'll get a call that Dad needs to go to the doctor. Or we get a lot of calls from people who are in nursing homes who maybe want to go to a wedding or a funeral. When you consider a wedding, everyone is busy. Maybe Mom is 1-1/2 hours away. But we can get her and she can come in and spend a couple of hours. Or we get a lot of calls from people who come to Pittsburgh and just need a wheelchair van to get them around. But most of (the calls) have just been for long-overdue medical appointments."
Luffy said when p.r.n. first gets a call, it sends a "safety" to the premises. "A safety," she explained, "is a supervisor who first meets with the person or family to reassure them, evaluate the issues, and determine what we need to do this move safely. Then he shows them what we will actually be doing."
The transport vehicles are not ambulances, but are equipped to handle wheelchairs or stretchers if necessary, and also have an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) machine and a small portable oxygen tank on board. Luffy said two staff members are part of the transport team, one medical person and one non-medical person.
Once the people are in a position to get out of their homes they may be all right on their own, i.e., during a visit to the doctor's office, or perhaps even to spend a few hours at a mall. On the other hand, if they need assistance at their destination, a member of the crew will accompany them.
"We like to think of this as a kid-glove type of transportation for people," Luffy concluded.
For more information call (412) 824-2181 or visit www.prnhealthservice.com.
