Non-Emergency Medical Transportation in Alexandria, VA

Where we take Alexandria riders

Inova Alexandria Hospital on Seminary Road is the anchor — appointments all week and discharges most days. Inova Mount Vernon Hospital covers the southern end of the city and the Route 1 corridor below it, and for a lot of Huntington and Rose Hill riders it’s the shorter run.

Kaiser Permanente’s Alexandria medical center in Potomac Yard carries a high volume of routine specialist and follow-up visits — the trips most likely to become a standing booking. The Inova HealthPlex at Franconia-Springfield takes outpatient surgery, imaging and therapy appointments on the western edge.

For riders on the Fort Belvoir side we run to Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, which is on the installation: riders with a Defense Department ID go straight in, and anyone without one needs a sponsored pass arranged in advance, so tell us when you book. Northern Alexandria riders often go to VHC Health in Arlington instead, and we run that daily.

We also cross the river. We hold WMATC authority 3449, which is what a carrier needs to operate legally into Washington DC, and Alexandria is close enough that DC destinations — Georgetown, GW, Sibley, Howard — come up constantly. Not every operator working this city holds that authority.

Old Town pickup — the narrow-street problem

Old Town is the hardest pickup in our service area, and it’s worth being specific about why, because every family who lives there already knows and most transport companies pretend otherwise.

There is usually no driveway. The vehicle parks on the street, which means permit parking, which means a wheelchair van occupying a residential space for the length of a transfer. We do this every week and we know which blocks are workable. What we need from you is the nearest cross street and any warning about a block that’s under construction or has been permit-restricted recently.

The streets are narrow and some are still cobbled. A ramp needs level ground to deploy safely. Cobblestone and a crowned street are not level ground. Sometimes the right answer is to bring the vehicle to the corner and cover the last twenty yards on foot with the rider in their chair — which is fine, and which the crew will plan for if they know the address in advance.

The houses have stoops. Three or four steps up from the sidewalk to the front door, no handrail on one side, and a narrow turn at the top. For an ambulatory rider that’s an assisted walk. For a wheelchair rider it means a stair chair and two crew. For a stretcher it means planning the turn before anybody is on the stretcher. Tell us how many steps when you book — not “a few”, the actual number if you can.

Row houses share walls and sometimes entrances. If the unit is a basement apartment with its own below-grade door, or the entrance is through a shared vestibule, say so.

None of this makes Old Town impossible. It makes it a trip that needs five minutes of planning before the vehicle is dispatched rather than five minutes of improvising at the curb.

Choosing your level of service

Four options, and the right one depends on how your rider moves rather than how far they’re going.

Ambulatory is for someone who can walk to and from the vehicle, with a steadying arm if needed. The driver assists at the door and again at the destination.

Wheelchair transportation is for a rider who stays in their chair for the trip. The chair goes up a ramp on our minivans or a hydraulic lift on our full-size vans, and it is secured with a four-point strap system before the vehicle moves. You don’t need to own a wheelchair — we can provide one.

Stretcher is for a rider who can’t sit upright safely for the journey. Common after surgery, during a decline, or when someone is discharged from a hospital to a skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility. Two crew members run every stretcher trip, so there is always a second pair of hands for the transfer at both ends.

Bariatric applies over 300 pounds and uses equipment rated for the weight, with additional crew. We run fewer bariatric vehicles than standard ones, so give us as much notice as you can.

If you’re not sure which applies, call and describe the situation. Getting this right before the vehicle is dispatched matters more than almost anything else about the booking — the wrong vehicle at the door means a delay, and a delay on a medical appointment is rarely just an inconvenience.

For prices, pickup tips and local destinations by service, see our pages on wheelchair transportation in Alexandria and stretcher transportation in Alexandria.

Dialysis and standing orders

Dialysis is the ride we run most often, and it’s the one where reliability compounds. A patient on a three-day-a-week schedule takes more than 150 trips a year with us. Missing one isn’t a scheduling inconvenience; it’s a clinical event.

In and around Alexandria we run to DaVita Alexandria Dialysis and the Alexandria Kidney Center on Duke Street, NOVA Dialysis Woodbine on King Street and DaVita Franconia Dialysis in Kingstowne, and for riders on the southern end, Fresenius Kidney Care Fort Belvoir, which is off post on Sacramento Drive. Most patients on those schedules ride three days a week.

For a recurring schedule we set up a standing order rather than having you rebook every week. You tell us the days, the times and the center once. The trip stays on our schedule, the same crews see the same riders, and they learn the specifics — which door, how long the chair takes to come out, whether the rider needs the vehicle warm before they get in.

Post-dialysis rides run differently from the outbound leg. People come off treatment tired, sometimes lightheaded, occasionally unsteady in a way they weren’t three hours earlier. Our drivers are told to expect that rather than treat it as a surprise, and to give the transfer whatever time it needs.

Booking, coverage and payment

Dispatch answers around the clock at (703) 304-7889. For a routine appointment, a day’s notice is comfortable and more is better, particularly for stretcher or bariatric trips where the vehicle pool is smaller. For facilities scheduling a discharge, we hold to a three-hour lead time.

If the ride is covered by Medicaid, it should cost the rider nothing, and it is booked through the plan’s transportation broker rather than directly with us. Call the transportation number on your Medicaid ID card; the brokers we work with are MTM Health and SafeRide Health. Request H&M Transport specifically when you book your ride. See our Virginia Medicaid transportation guide.

If you’re paying privately or arranging through a facility account, call us directly and we’ll quote the trip before you commit. Pricing depends on level of service, mileage and whether the trip is one-way or round-trip — our full rate card and estimator is published.

Facilities in Alexandria — Inova Alexandria’s discharge planners, Goodwin House, the skilled nursing and rehab centers, the assisted living communities in Old Town and along Seminary Road — can set up an account with us and book without quoting each trip individually.

Questions we get from Alexandria families

Can you actually get a wheelchair van down my street in Old Town?

Usually yes, and where we can’t we park at the corner and cover the last stretch on foot with the rider in their chair. Tell us the address and the nearest cross street when you book and the crew will plan the approach rather than discover it.

My mother’s house has four steps and no ramp. Is that a problem?

No, but it changes the crew. Steps mean a stair chair and two people rather than one. Tell us the number of steps and whether there’s a handrail when you book.

Do you go into Washington DC?

Yes. We hold WMATC authority 3449, which is what a carrier needs to cross the DC line legally. From Alexandria that’s a short run and we do it daily.

How does Beltway timing affect my pickup?

We schedule around it rather than hope. A morning appointment north of the river from an Alexandria pickup means leaving earlier than the mileage suggests. If your appointment is in the morning peak, expect us earlier than you’d expect.

What if the appointment runs late?

Call dispatch and we adjust. For a return leg we generally hold the slot rather than send the vehicle away, because a rider stranded at a clinic is the worst outcome in this business. A call as soon as you know helps more than a call when you’re ready to leave.

Are you accredited?

Yes — H&M Transport was the first non-emergency medical transportation provider in Virginia to earn NEMTAC accreditation. It covers driver training, vehicle standards, securement procedure and incident handling.

What we can’t take

H&M Transport runs non-emergency medical transportation. We carry people to scheduled medical care and back home again, and the ride itself is transport rather than treatment.

That means there are trips we can’t take. We are not an ambulance service. We don’t provide medical care or monitoring on board, we don’t transport anyone to an emergency room, and we don’t move patients from one hospital to another for a higher level of care. Those are ambulance trips, and they need a crew and a vehicle equipped for them.

If this is a medical emergency, call 911.

If you’re not sure which you need, call us and describe the situation. We would rather tell you to dial 911 than send the wrong vehicle.

Book a ride in Alexandria

Alexandria, Old Town, Del Ray, Franconia, Kingstowne, Huntington and Rose Hill — ambulatory, wheelchair, stretcher and bariatric, seven days a week.

Call dispatch at (703) 304-7889, any hour. If you’d rather start online, use our reservations page and we’ll call you back to confirm the details.