Transit Deals Inked For Primary Care Hub

Yale New Haven Hospital has signed contracts with Uber and two other regional transportation services to provide free transit for carless patients who live more than a 40-minute bus ride away from a proposed new primary care hub on Long Wharf.

According to a hospital survey of current patients, that number could be as high as 9,500 people.

Those newly minted transportation contracts, as well as a wealth of previously unpublished demographic details about whom the hospital’s primary care providers currently serve, are included in the latest 159-page packet of responses that the hospital submitted to state regulators on Tuesday.

The new documents are part of the hospital’s ongoing bid to win state approval to close its three current primary care locations downtown and relocate them to a single building at 150 Sargent Dr.. That center, scheduled to open in the fall of 2020, would be called the New Haven Primary Care Consortium (NHPCC) and would be run in partnership with Fair Haven Community Health Care, and the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center.

Since YNHH began its application to the state Office of Health Strategy (OHS) months ago for the certificate of need (CON) required to initiate the primary care move, regulator and community-based critics have pressed the hospital to think through the potential accessibility ramifications of moving all of its primary care services to a part of town relatively devoid of public transit. .The services see around 25,000 mostly low-income patients every year,

The latest set of responses, the sixth such packet that the hospital has provided following continued asks by OHS regulators, deals in detail with how the hospital plans to address that potential public transit pickle.

“YNHH is contracting with three vendors for transportation services: Uber, Milford Transit District (MTD) and Coordinated Transportation Solutions (CTS),” YNHH Director of Strategy & Regulatory Planning writes in the May 28 response. ​“These vendors will all pick up eligible patients from their homes and transport them to 150 Sargent Drive.”

MTD and CTS would provide ADA-compliant access for eligible patients with disabilities, Topalian writes, and none of the three would require smartphones to use.

Click here to read the hospital’s latest response in full.

In June 2018, Topalian writes, the hospital conducted a survey of over 2,500 current primary care patients on how they travel to YNHH’s St. Raphael’s, York Street, and Hamden locations.

Two-thirds indicated that they drive, 15 percent use public transit, 10 percent walk, 5 percent use a medical taxi, and 3 percent use a a taxi, Uber, or Lyft. Thirty percent of all respondents, the survey found, indicated that they had missed an appointment due to transportation barriers.

The 150 Sargent Dr. location, Topalian writes, will have 250 standard parking spaces, 26 handicapped spaces, and five spaces for medical vans, all of which will be available for patients to park at for free.

The new proposed site is also serviced directly by the 274 and 274C public bus lines, and indirectly by the 246 and 241 lines, which require a transfer downtown.

“YNHH and the NHPCC will advocate for a greater number of direct bus routes to 150 Sargent Drive from the New Haven neighborhoods,” Topalian writes. ​“Although there are many bus stops and frequent bus routes throughout the greater New Haven neighborhoods, many CT Transit bus routes require passengers to change at the New Haven Green, and take a second bus to 150 Sargent Drive. In addition to advocating for more direct bus routes, YNHH will advocate for more frequent routes during ​“off peak times” to decrease wait times.”

For current patients who live over a 40-minute bus ride away from the proposed Long Wharf primary care center site, Topalian writes, the hospital will provide free transportation via Uber, MTD, or CTS.

In a survey of all current YNHH primary care unique patients, the hospital found that 4,484 live within a 10-mile radius and within a 40-minute bus ride of 150 Sargent Dr.

It found another 9,500 unique patients who live within a 10-mile radius but more than a 40-minute bus ride from 150 Sargent.

“These patients would be eligible for transportation services,” he writes, ​“regardless of insurance or financial status, if they do not have access to a private automobile (e.g. drive themselves or driven by family member or friend) and/or require special transportation assistance.”

The hospital also found that nearly 20 percent (2,949) of its New Haven patients live in the Hill, 13.5 percent live in Fair Haven, 11 percent live in West River and Edgewood, 8 percent live in Newhallville, and the rest are dispersed throughout the city.

“When an eligible patient requiring transportation assistance calls to schedule an appointment at the Health Center,” Topalian writes, ​“the staff will also schedule the appropriate transportation for the patient. In addition to scheduling patient transportation for the same day, rides can also be scheduled from seven days to 30 days in advance of the appointment. Upon completion of the appointment, Health Center staff will arrange the return trip.”

The hospital plans to track usage reports for the three new transportation providers on a monthly basis, Topalian notes, and then give each vendor 30 days to remedy any issues that may arise.

“If the issues are not resolved within such 30 day period,” he notes, ​“YNHH may terminate the relationship.”

Previous articles about the proposed New Haven Primary Care Consortium:

• Plan Reimagines Primary Care For Poor
• Primary Plan’s Obstacle: Broken Bus System
• Primary Care Move Delayed To 2020
• Flood-Proofing Promised For Primary Care Site
• YNHH Reshuffles St. Ray’s Campus
• Primary Care Plan: Shuttle Out, Uber In
• Farwell Questions Primary Care Move’s Impact On Poor
• West River Questions Primary Care Move
• Harp Backs Primary Care Move

Below are Facebook Live videos of portions of last fall’s public hearing, and of an interview earlier this year with Lagarde and Taylor on WNHH’s ​“Dateline New Haven.”