Ambulatory transportation is a ride where the driver comes to your door, waits at the appointment, walks you back inside afterward, and carries what you are holding. Ours is $88 each way or $176 round trip within five miles of one of our offices, then $2 a mile.

What does ambulatory actually mean here?

That you can get yourself in and out of a vehicle seat, with or without a cane or a walker, and you are not staying seated in a wheelchair for the trip. You might be slow. You might need an arm. You might need somebody to hold the door and put the walker in the back. That is still ambulatory.

It matters because this whole industry is built around wheelchairs. Search for medical transportation in Massachusetts and everything that comes back is a van with a ramp. If you walk, you end up either paying for equipment you will not use or being told to take an Uber, and neither is the right answer.

Why not just take an Uber?

Sometimes you should, and if the trip is simple and you feel fine, take it. Three situations where it does not work.

After sedation or general anesthesia, most Massachusetts hospitals and surgical centers will not discharge you to a rideshare or a taxi at all. They need a named responsible adult. A driver who only pulls up outside does not satisfy that, and neither does a rideshare, no matter how nice the driver is.

The second is the return leg. A rideshare will not wait. If the appointment runs two hours over, you are standing outside a hospital in February trying to get a phone to work. We hold the trip and wait.

The third is the twenty feet at each end. A rideshare drops you at the curb. If the curb is icy, or the walk to the entrance is long, or you are carrying a bag and using a cane at the same time, the curb is where the trouble is.

Curb to curb, door to door, door through door

These are the three levels the industry actually uses, and the words are worth knowing before you book anything, because a service that sounds identical on the phone may be selling you the cheapest one.

• Curb to curb. The vehicle stops at the street. You get yourself to it and from it. This is what a rideshare is, and it is what a lot of medical transport is too.
• Door to door. The driver comes to the door of the building and walks with you to the vehicle.
• Door through door. The driver comes inside, gets you from where you actually are, and at the other end takes you inside to the waiting room or into your kitchen, not to the front step.

We do door through door as standard, and if you are booking somewhere else, ask them which of the three they mean. Ask it in those words.

Who books ambulatory rides?

Not who most people assume. The largest group is not frail at all.

• Anyone being discharged after sedation. Colonoscopy, cataract surgery, oral and jaw surgery, an endoscopy, a biopsy. You walked in that morning and you will walk out. You just cannot drive and cannot leave alone.
• People who stopped driving. Not because they cannot walk, because they gave up the keys. Nothing about their legs changed.
• People who cannot drive for a medical reason. A seizure, a cardiac event, a new medication, a vision change. Massachusetts can suspend or restrict a license for medical reasons, sometimes for months, and these are often people in their forties with a full schedule and no plan.
• Low vision and blindness. Walking is not the problem. A strange building is.
• Infusion, chemotherapy and dialysis. You can walk in. Walking out three hours later is a different question, and the ride home is the one that matters.
• Cane and walker users who do not want to negotiate a stranger's back seat.

Can somebody come with me?

Yes, at no extra charge. A spouse, an adult child, a friend. Tell us when you book so we send the right vehicle.

Is this the same as an escort?

No, and this is the one thing to get straight before the day. The ride gets you there and back. An escort is a person who stays with you: sits in the waiting room, comes into the appointment if you want, takes the discharge instructions in writing, is named as your responsible adult at sign out, and repeats what the doctor said on the drive home because you will not remember all of it.

The escort is $45 an hour for the time our person is with you, and it is billed separately from the fare. If the hospital told you to bring a responsible adult, you want the escort and not only the ride. Say so when you book.

What does it cost, all in?

• The ride. $115 each way, $230 round trip, within five miles of one of our offices, then $2 a mile. Waiting is included. A pharmacy stop on the route is included.
• The escort, if you need one. $45 an hour.
• Front steps are usually not an issue for an ambulatory passenger, but if they are, two staff and a motorized stair chair are $200 a visit.

We publish these. Call three other services and see how many will give you a number over the phone.

Cheaper things to try first

• Your town's Council on Aging van. Most Massachusetts towns run one, often free or a few dollars, and ambulatory riders are exactly who it is for. It usually books days ahead and usually stays local.
• Your Medicare Advantage plan. Many include a set number of one way trips a year that members never use. Call the number on the card.
• PT-1, if you have MassHealth. It covers rides to covered appointments and it covers ambulatory rides, not only wheelchair ones. The form goes through your medical provider and needs lead time.
• The hospital shuttle, if you are going to one of the big Boston campuses. Some run from parking areas and transit stops and nobody mentions it.

Use those where they fit. Hire us for the trips they cannot take: the discharge with a sedation requirement, the appointment out of town, the day something moved.

What should you tell us when you book?

• Whether you use a cane, a walker or nothing.
• Whether there are steps at your door, and how many.
• Whether you are being sedated, because that changes whether you need an escort.
• One way or round trip, and your best estimate of the return time.
• Whether somebody is riding with you.

Where do you go?

We work out of Woburn, Brockton and Springfield and cover most of eastern and central Massachusetts, including the Boston hospitals, Lahey, Newton-Wellesley, Dana-Farber and Baystate. Call 781-957-8076 . Booking by phone takes about three minutes and you can also do it on the website.

This page is general information about arranging transportation, not medical advice. Follow your care team's instructions about driving.