Minnesota researchers tackle non-emergency medical transportation

As more rural hospitals close and access to healthcare clinics and physicians gets harder for rural residents, researchers in Duluth, Minnesota, are looking at the impact transportation has on rural healthcare.

At the University of Minnesota Duluth, researchers and faculty members are working with the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission to find ways to sustain and re-imagine healthcare transportation. Arrowhead is a development organization serving northeastern Minnesota, specifically the counties of Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake and St. Louis. The goal of the organization is to bring together governments and citizens to identify regional needs and solve problems.

For Beverly Sidlo-Tolliver, principal planner at Arrowhead, the need to look into the issue came when she was working in healthcare. While she was attending a workshop on dialysis, the issue of transportation came up. Just two we...