Health Resource Capacity Assessment for Danielson, Connecticut, June 2003

Health Resource Capacity Assessment for Danielson, Connecticut

June 2003

Danielson Description

Health Needs and Barriers to Care

Health Needs and Barriers to Care: Transportation

Lack of transportation was noted in virtually every stakeholder interview as a significant barrier to accessing health care. Twelve percent of Danielson residents do not have access to a vehicle in their household⁵⁵. Because Danielson is a rural community, this represents a serious challenge to accessing care. While Danielson is home to several primary care practices and a community health center satellite, referrals for specialty care or tests outside the area can be a significant problem. Unreliable transportation leads to missed appointments that patients have often waited months to get. Both lack of transportation and the consequent interruptions in care fall hardest on low-income and elderly patients. Transportation challenges and missed appointments also hurt the productivity and finances of providers, especially those who serve a larger proportion of uninsured and Medicaid consumers⁵⁶.

There is no local taxi service. Medical transportation services require 48 hours notice and are unreliable. One stakeholder noted that families are forced to, "call the ambulance for a fever to take them to the Emergency Room because they have no transportation." Another noted that ambulance use by Danielson residents is the highest in the area, commenting that people are forced to "use the ambulance as a taxi⁵⁷."

Public busses do not run in the evenings and due to regional routes it can take hours to get back and forth to an appointment for testing at Day Kimball Hospital in neighboring Putnam. A physician at Day Kimball Hospital noted that some patients discharged at night have to walk home. Bus service was recently "revamped" which has improved service⁵⁸.

Many services, including mental health and dental care, require referrals to Norwich or Hartford. One stakeholder commented, "Asking our parents to go to Hartford -- well it might as well be Hong Kong⁵⁹."

There are no school-based health centers in Danielson or the entire Northeastern CT corner, but the new dental van (see Planning Initiatives) has visited 31 schools in the area. The van is seen as a significant improvement in overcoming transportation and other challenges to accessing dental care for Danielson's children⁶⁰.

Next: Health Needs and Barriers to Care: Dental Care

Footnotes