Medical Transportation in Monroe

Monroe is the exception in Union County. It is the county seat and it has real infrastructure of its own. Atrium Health Union on Hospital Drive runs an emergency room open around the clock, a separate pediatric emergency department, a Level III NICU, and interventional cardiology. Presbyterian Surgery Center Monroe and Carolina Endoscopy Monroe handle outpatient procedures. The cancer institute and radiation therapy sit a block apart on Faulk Street.

Having all of that inside the city limits changes nothing about the one rule an outpatient department will not bend. If you are getting anesthesia or sedation, if your eyes are being dilated, if the paperwork says no driving today, the appointment does not happen without another adult. A hospital eight minutes from the house is no help at all when that adult does not exist on a Tuesday morning.

That is the gap we fill. We are a private-pay medical transportation service based in Charlotte, and Monroe is one of the areas we drive every week.

Where we take Monroe riders

Hospital and emergency care

• Atrium Health Union 600 Hospital Dr

Procedures and endoscopy

• Presbyterian Surgery Center Monroe 2000 Wellness Blvd, Ste 2100
• Carolina Endoscopy Monroe 1663 Campus Park Dr, Ste A

Cancer care and orthopedics

• Levine Cancer Institute, Union 1550 Faulk St, Ste 1500
• OrthoCarolina Monroe 703 Comfort Ln

Radiation therapy is a block from the cancer institute at 1650 Faulk St, which makes a daily course of treatment a short in-town run instead of a drive out of the county. We also pick up from senior living and rehabilitation communities around Monroe, including Brookdale Monroe Square on Fitzgerald Street, Jesse Helms Nursing Center on Dove Street, and Woodridge Monroe on Fowler Secrest Road. When the referral goes to Charlotte, we drive that too.

Three ways to book

On wait and return, for minor procedures including colonoscopies, our driver can serve as the designated person the facility requires before it will perform or discharge the procedure. Between the endoscopy center on Campus Park Drive, the surgery center on Wellness Boulevard, and the hospital itself, that requirement comes up here constantly.

Every driver is CPR certified, PASS certified for wheelchair securement, and HIPAA trained. The vehicles and the drivers belong to us, so nobody subcontracts your ride the night before.

We check the pickup before we confirm

Before any booking is confirmed we ask about the driveway and the entrance at both ends: the surface, whether there is a flat spot to lower the lift, whether a full-size van can turn around, and how many steps there are.

Monroe's housing is older and more varied than the rest of the county. Downtown streets have homes with a porch and three or four steps up to it, sometimes on a narrow drive with no room to turn a full-size van around. Out past the loop there are gravel approaches and long drives. Nursing and rehabilitation centers are their own category, where the real question is which door staff use for transport. A lift needs level ground, and there is a hard limit on how many steps we will ramp a wheelchair over.

The drive

Inside Monroe the driving is short. Hospital Drive, Faulk Street, Campus Park Drive, and Wellness Boulevard are all within a few minutes of each other and of most Monroe addresses, so an in-town appointment takes a small slice of the day.

Charlotte is the run that needs a plan. Twenty-seven miles is not much on paper, but the surface stretch of US-74 heading northwest is a long chain of traffic lights, and that is where the minutes disappear. It is the reason the route question above is not a small one. Give us the check-in time rather than the appointment time when the two are different, and we build the morning around it.

Common questions from Monroe riders

Do you take the Monroe Expressway or stay on US-74?

Whichever actually gets you there. The expressway is a toll route and it usually saves fifteen to twenty minutes on the Charlotte run by skipping the lights. The surface route is free and sometimes makes more sense depending on where in Monroe we start. We settle it before the driver pulls out, not while you are sitting in the back.

Monroe has its own hospital. When would you ever be driving me to Charlotte?

When the referral goes there. Some specialists, some clinical programs, and some second opinions only exist in Charlotte, and Monroe patients make that drive regularly. We run it in either direction, and as a round trip when you want the return leg guaranteed.

My cardiology procedure is at Atrium Health Union and I will be sedated. Can the driver stay?

Yes. Book wait and return. The driver is on site the whole time and can be the designated person the department requires before it will sedate you and before it will release you afterward.

I am being discharged from Atrium Health Union today and the ride I had lined up fell through. Can you come this afternoon?

Sometimes, yes. Same-day is bookable whenever the calendar is open. Call instead of filling out a form and we will tell you what is actually available.

Do you only do the Charlotte run, or do you drive inside Monroe too?

Both. A short hop from a Sunset Drive or Fitzgerald Street address over to Hospital Drive or Faulk Street is a normal booking here, ambulatory or wheelchair, and it is the same vehicles and the same drivers that handle the long runs.

Do you answer the phone at night?

Yes. Every call is answered, never voicemail. During our hours you are put through to the team on the spot. Calls that come in later are captured and worked, never dropped.