Paratransit Training Program

Many agencies perform paratransit also known as non-emergency transport (NEMT) services to the jurisdictions that they serve.  These services are beneficial and in some cases vital to the residents of the area to provide life sustaining medical treatment.  Patients that receive these services may be in a long term care facility, group home or a residential setting.  Several factors of this type service are different in many ways to emergency response due to patient location and condition, different destination locations and frequency of patient contact.

During the recent risk assessment of your organization, it was noted that paratransit/NEMT services are provided by your Emergency Service Organization.  It was also noted that no specific training or standard operating guidelines currently exist for this specialty type of transport. 

We recommends your organization evaluate the operation of this portion of your total call volume and provide specific training to all personnel participating in these type transports.  Training should be tailored to the type of transports that are applicable such as non-ambulatory stretcher patients in a traditional ambulance, non-emergency bariatric transports and non-ambulatory and ambulatory wheelchair transports.  Some areas to consider for standard operating guidelines include but are not limited to the following:

• Location accessibility screening
• Passenger/family member riding policy
• Patient/Client securement
• Parking and traffic control
• Loading and unloading
• What type of patient handling equipment will be used (i.e. ESO equipment or patient equipment)

Once established the SOG’s should be used as a basis for training as well as specific drivers training for different types of transport vehicles.

Available Resources

• Paratransit Operator Proficiency Evaluation Checklist
• Paratransit Vehicle Inspection Guide
• Paratransit Vehicle Driving for Safe Client Experience
• Paratransit Safety Operations - An Introduction