goHunterdon has been awarded $50,000 from the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey for ongoing support of the Hunterdon Health Access Transportation Program.
This is the third allocation awarded to goHunterdon from the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey based on the success of the program which began in 2020. In the three years since the program first launched, more than 2,000 rides have been provided to seniors.
The Hunterdon Health Access Transportation Program provides Uber and Lyft rides for senior patients of Hunterdon Health to get to non-emergency medical appointments. Participants are identified by Home Medical Care Coordinators at more than twenty Hunterdon Health affiliated primary care practices as being at risk for missing needed care due to a lack of transportation.
goHunterdon staff facilitates rides for patients, monitoring each ride in real time, to ensure that participants arrive safely at their destination.
“Lack of transportation has regularly been identified in the Community Health Needs Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan as a barrier to healthcare within Hunterdon County,” say Tara Shepherd, goHunterdon Executive Director. “This program meets a very specific transportation need for a specific population within the community,” she notes. “It is providing participants with access to often long delayed medical and preventive care.”
“The program is only possible with the ongoing support of the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey,” says Shepherd.
Since 2004, the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey has aimed to make New Jersey healthier by supporting nonprofit organizations that expand access to health care, remove barriers to good health and improve health equity to increase opportunities for everyone to live their healthiest life possible, no matter who they are or where they live.
For more information about goHunterdon or the Hunterdon Health Access Transportation Program, contact tshepherd@gohunterdon.org
