Maureen Dunleavy, regional Senior Vice President for the Guidance Care Center, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
The Guidance Care Center is making enhancements to their transportation system.
Dunleavy said, “I think it’s real important to know that we’ve been doing transportation and been the community transportation coordinator since the early 90s. So really, it’s been 30 plus years that we’ve been doing transportation in this community, and the focus has really been on those that are disadvantaged. So we want to work as a community to be able to make sure people can get to whatever appointments they need. And, of course, we have other means of transportation. We want to be efficient and fill in those gaps. In October, the county had taken their county transportation program and kind of rolled it into us expanding and enhancing what we’re already doing. So like I said, we’ve been doing transportation for 30 plus years. That includes trips anywhere from mile marker 11 up to the mainland, helping people get to appointments if they have to do chemotherapy or dialysis or need to get to the eye clinic. But we also have been able to do things like helping people get to their employment or shopping, that sort of thing.”
In October, it was expanded and enhanced.
Dunleavy said, “Obviously, it’s a process that doesn’t happen overnight, to be able to meet the needs of our community. I think one really important thing for our listeners to know is that this is not like a bus service or Uber. It is door to door transportation for those that are disadvantaged, and you have to be eligible and apply to be able to utilize this service. The other thing in regards to the website, if you scroll down towards the bottom, where it says additional transportation services in Monroe County, it has all the links for the various transportation providers in our community. Of course, Monroe County Transit is listed there, but if you click that, it goes to their website, which directs you back to us. The other really important thing is this, if you have Medicaid, then Medicaid have their own transportation programs, so you have to go through your insurance plan to schedule those trips.”
Who is eligible?
Dunleavay said, “It either can be by age, so if you’re over 60, which I know is hilarious, over 60 is considered disadvantaged, you qualify automatically. That’s probably the easiest way to qualify, because you only need to submit your driver’s license or your ID card with your birthday to qualify. You can also qualify by disability, that can be a physical disability, a mental disability, it can be a temporary disability, where you’re unable to drive for a period of time, so you’ll need assistance during that window. And that, of course, is certified by a physician or a doctor, to specify what your needs are. And then the last is by income. And so if you’re not able to afford to take the transit or take the bus or take the shuttle, you can qualify that way too. We do trips Monday through Friday, from eight to four. And this really is an efficiency program. So it is, like I said, it’s not Uber it’s not on demand. It is a scheduled, coordinated, multi loaded trip to be able to help all of our Monroe County residents get where they need to go within the county and then get to the mainland.”
When the Cancer Center closed in Key West, it made travel tricky.
Dunleavy said, “That meant people needed to go to Marathon or to Miami to get their chemotherapy. And oftentimes, if you’re having some of these procedures you can’t drive yourself, and so that is what our transportation is for. On the right hand side of the website, it has our useful PDFs, and then it has our rider handbook. It has our eligibility and application, and then it also has some other information about Title XI. You qualify in one of those areas, you fill out the application. All of the instructions are on that PDF, which is downloaded from our website. You send that in. It usually takes about a week for all of that to be processed. And then once you’re on the list to be eligible, that’s good for whatever period of time is specified by your physician. Usually we make people re eligible every year. But of course, if you’re over 60 and you already have your driver’s license on file, then you don’t need to reapply every year. You’re going to just automatically be renewed, where disabilities change, your income level changes, so that is more of an annual type of enrollment. So expect that your eligibility and application will take about a year to be processed, and then once it’s processed, then you’re on the list, and then you can go ahead and make a reservation. So you’ll see on the left hand side, it says for transportation information or to schedule a ride, you call the main number and then press number two, when the script starts.”
Twice a week there are trips to Miami Dade.
Dunleavy said, “There’s a trip in the morning and a trip in the afternoon, and so that way, if you’re having outpatient surgery and you need to go up on the early bus, and then there’s another bus that then comes back, and again, it’s not like where you’re standing out on the street corner waiting for the bus to come by. It is a scheduled trip where you’re scheduled to go up and to come back, and it’s coordinated to make it as efficient as possible. That’s one of the reasons we kind of rolled over the county services into ours, is because we could do it as efficiently as possible, since we already were doing this.”
How far in advance are reservations recommended?
Dunleavy said, “Once you’re on the list and you do make your reservation, it’s 48 hours. But if it’s a regular trip. And I would say 50% of our trips are what we call subscription where you’re going every week, you’re always doing dialysis on certain days, or you’re always doing your shopping trips on certain days. Those will be ongoing, so you don’t have to call every time to say, hey, I need to schedule my trip, but for that first trip and and for other trips in the future, it has to be at least 48 hours, but it can be as far into the future as needed. I mean, obviously, if you have a follow up appointment at Mount Sinai, you’re going to know about that a lot sooner than 48 hours. So you want to schedule and get on that list as soon as possible, because really we’re working constantly to add people in. I mean, the schedule is always changing. So the other question that comes up is, how soon am I going to know what time my pickup time is? And typically, what happens is the night before or the day before your scheduled pickup, you’re going to receive information, a phone call message to be able to say what time that bus is going to come pick you up. And so, because there are so many things that are changing, typically it’s not before then, because we’re working and doing trips all the way until that 2pm guideline, people are canceling, people are scheduling. So we’re working to make that happen.”
This is for anyone in the community.
Dunleavy said, “You don’t have to be a client with Guidance Care Center. We certainly will help you get to your Guidance Care Center appointments, but really, this is a community based service for any resident, and I should say too that it also includes children. But obviously, children can’t ride by themselves. They have to ride with the parents, who will also be on the bus with them to be able to go to the appointment. And then, of course, if they have Medicaid again, if you scroll down on our website, you can click the Medicaid link, and it will bring up all of the plans and all of the phone numbers for where you schedule your transportation. So depending upon which Medicaid plan you have, you would contact that number to schedule transportation. So we are not able to transport Medicaid eligible or Medicaid enrolled individuals if transportation is covered by their plan. Because, again, the idea is to work together to meet the need. And so if you have another mechanism to be able to get where you need to go, we want you to use that so we can definitely ensure that we can move residents that don’t have another option to where they need to go.”
The name is also changing.
Dunleavy said, “We will be rebranding our name. So originally our program was called Middle Keys Transportation, but we’ve decided to change that to Florida Keys Transportation so we don’t give off the impression that we only are transporting throughout the Middle Keys. We’re transporting throughout all of the Florida Keys, as well as to the mainland. We’re also working on some additional enhancements. So if people have had any concerns about our ability to meet the need, we’re going to be getting a web based scheduling system, so lots of good things coming that we’re working on.”
For more information, click here: https://guidancecarecenter.org/