Non-Emergency Medical Transportation in Downers Grove, IL

Advocate Good Samaritan opened in 1976 and today holds Level I trauma designation from the Illinois Department of Public Health, with trauma surgeons covering around the clock. For Downers Grove that means the most serious injuries and illnesses in the area come to a campus inside the village, not one across the county.

The ambulance handles the emergency. The weeks after are a transportation problem families often do not expect. A patient discharged after a serious fall or a car crash may need a stretcher to reach an inpatient rehab hospital, then a wheelchair van home, then outpatient therapy several times a week while they relearn to walk. The family car rarely works for any of those stages.

We plan the rides around the recovery. The case manager tells us what the patient can do at discharge, and we match the vehicle. As the rider gains strength we change the booking: stretcher to wheelchair, wheelchair to ambulatory. The standing order keeps the days and times; only the vehicle changes.

Good Samaritan also draws heart, stroke and cancer patients from across DuPage County, so many of our Downers Grove rides are routine specialist visits rather than trauma follow-up. Those are simpler, but the same rule holds: we arrive at the right entrance, on time, with the right vehicle.

Recovery also brings clinic visits outside the hospital. Midwestern University's multispecialty clinic on Lacey Road offers physical therapy, eye, dental and speech-language care in one building, and many Downers Grove riders book it as a weekly standing order while they get back on their feet.