Non-Emergency Medical Transportation in Fairfax, VA

Where we take Fairfax riders

Inova Fairfax Hospital is the regional anchor and the destination we run to most. It carries the trauma center, the transplant program, the heart and vascular institute and the cancer service line, which means a large share of the trips are follow-up appointments on a long treatment arc rather than one-off visits. Those are the riders for whom a standing order usually makes sense.

Inova Fair Oaks Hospital on Joseph Siewick Drive serves the western half of the county and is the shorter run for riders in Fair Lakes, Centreville and Chantilly. Inova Mount Vernon Hospital picks up the southern edge.

Beyond the hospitals, we run to the Inova Center for Personalized Health in Merrifield, Dominion Hospital, Kaiser Permanente’s Tysons Corner medical center and the surgery centers across the county — Fairfax Surgical Center, Northern Virginia Surgery Center and Inova Woodburn Surgery Center among them. Outpatient surgery is one of the clearest cases for booking transport in advance: most centers will not discharge a patient who has had sedation to drive themselves or to a rideshare.

We also run Fairfax riders into Arlington, down to Alexandria, west to Prince William and across the river into Washington DC. We hold WMATC authority 3449 for the DC crossing.

Hospital discharge transport

Fairfax deserves its own discharge section because Inova Fairfax discharges a great many people who cannot use a sedan and should not be in a rideshare.

Discharge transport has a shape to it. The floor decides the patient is going home, the paperwork takes longer than anyone expects, and then there’s a window — sometimes a couple of hours, sometimes less — in which the bed is needed and the patient is ready. That’s the window we’re booking into.

What we need from the floor: the level of service (can the patient sit upright for the trip, or not), whether they’re going home or to a skilled nursing facility, whether there are stairs at the destination, whether they’re leaving with oxygen or any equipment that travels with them, and a realistic time rather than an optimistic one.

What we commit to: a three-hour lead time. Call us three hours before you need the vehicle and we will be there. If the discharge slips — and discharges slip — call and we adjust rather than sending the vehicle away.

The stairs question is the one most often missed. A patient who managed the front steps fine two weeks ago may not manage them today, and the crew needs to know that before they arrive rather than at the door.

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 Fairfax and stretcher transportation in Fairfax.

Pickup across Fairfax County

Fairfax County is big enough that “Fairfax” tells us less than you’d think. The drive from Fairfax City to Mount Vernon is most of an hour in traffic, and a crew coming from one end of the county to the other needs that in the schedule.

High-rise and condo buildings around Merrifield, Tysons and the Mosaic district usually have a loading entrance that isn’t the front door, and often a desk that wants notice before a vehicle pulls up. Tell us which entrance and whether there’s a concierge to check in with.

Large apartment complexes — the kind with several buildings and a single street address — are where crews lose the most time. Give us the building number and, if you can, where the nearest visitor parking is. A driver circling a complex looking for building F is a driver who isn’t on the way to the appointment yet.

Single-family homes in Burke, Oakton and Vienna are usually the simplest. What matters is the approach: a steep driveway, a gravel turnaround or an uncleared walk in winter all change how a ramp deploys.

Stairs are the usual complication. A stretcher does not go down a narrow turn easily, and a wheelchair does not go down exterior steps at all without a stair chair and two crew. None of that is a problem if we know in advance.

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.

Across Fairfax County we run to DaVita Fairfax Dialysis, Fresenius Kidney Care’s Fairfax Dialysis Center, U.S. Renal Care Fairfax and Legacy Dialysis of Fairfax and, for riders on the Annandale and Falls Church side, DaVita Annandale Dialysis and U.S. Renal Care Falls Church.

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 across Fairfax County — Inova discharge planners, the skilled nursing and rehab centers, the assisted living communities — can set up an account with us and book without quoting each trip individually.

Questions we get from Fairfax families

How quickly can you take a discharge from Inova Fairfax?

Three hours’ lead time is what we commit to for facility bookings, and we hold to it. If the discharge slips after you’ve booked, call us — we’d rather adjust than have the vehicle sitting empty or the patient waiting.

Do you wait during the appointment?

It depends on the trip. For short appointments — dialysis, imaging, an injection — waiting is often the right call and we’ll price it that way. For a three-hour infusion it’s usually better to schedule a return leg. Tell us the expected duration when you book and we’ll tell you which makes sense.

Do you go into Washington DC?

Yes. We hold WMATC authority 3449, which is what a carrier needs to cross the DC line legally. Fairfax riders go to Georgetown, GW, Sibley and Howard regularly.

Can you handle a patient leaving with oxygen?

Yes, but tell us when you book. Oxygen changes the vehicle prep and the securement, and it’s not something to discover at the door.

Can we set up a standing order for weekly appointments?

Yes, and for anything recurring it’s the better arrangement. You give us the days, times and destination once. The trip stays on our schedule and the same crews tend to see the same riders, which matters more than it sounds like it should.

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 Fairfax

Fairfax, Fairfax City, Merrifield, Vienna, Oakton, Burke and Falls Church — 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.