Medical Transportation to Emory Healthcare Facilities: Discharge, Appointments, Dialysis

Emory is our home turf

Emory Decatur Hospital and Emory Hillandale Hospital both sit inside the DeKalb County area we run every day. That is not a marketing claim — it is why our response times to those two buildings are the best on our board. Our crews know the parking decks, the patient-discharge entrances, and which elevators actually fit a stretcher.

We also transport to and from Emory University Hospital and other Emory locations in Decatur and select areas of Atlanta for outpatient appointments, admissions, and discharges home or to a skilled nursing facility.

Heart2Heart Medical Transport is an independent transportation provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or contracted with Emory Healthcare.

Discharge pickups, including stretcher discharges

Discharge is the most common reason someone calls us about an Emory facility. The order is written, the family has a bed ready at home, and nobody can figure out how to move a patient who cannot sit in a car.

We take that trip in any configuration: wheelchair van, stretcher with a two-person crew, or BLS ambulance when the patient needs clinical monitoring during the ride. Stretcher discharges are our specialty — see our stretcher transportation page for exactly how the transfer and loading work.

What makes discharge day go smoothly is a phone call earlier rather than later. Give us the unit, room number, expected discharge window, and receiving address, and we will hold a crew for that window.

Rides to outpatient appointments

Not every Emory trip starts in a hospital bed. We pick patients up from home, assisted living, or a skilled nursing facility and bring them to imaging, infusion, wound care, pre-op visits, and specialist follow-ups at Emory locations, then take them home afterward.

For appointment trips we book the return leg at the same time. Waiting rooms run long, so we build in the flexibility rather than making a family call back and start over when the visit runs past its slot. One companion rides along at no extra charge, which matters when the patient needs someone in the room with them.

How case managers and discharge planners arrange transport

Hospital staff can book directly with dispatch. We need the destination address, the mobility level (ambulatory, wheelchair, or stretcher), the discharge window, any oxygen or equipment traveling with the patient, and who is paying — the family, the facility, or an authorized payer.

Clinic and hospital social workers coordinating recurring dialysis rides can use our social-worker referral path, which is built to collect scheduling details without any patient health information. Discharge-specific logistics are covered on our hospital discharge transportation page.

• Facility, unit, and room number for the pickup
• Receiving address, plus a contact who will answer on arrival
• Mobility level and equipment traveling with the patient
• Discharge window and whether the patient can wait if a bed is delayed
• Payment method — private pay unless it is a dialysis trip with prior auth

Dialysis trips involving Emory locations

We run standing three-times-a-week schedules to dialysis clinics across Decatur and DeKalb, including Emory dialysis locations in the area. Heart2Heart bills insurance for medically necessary transports such as dialysis, wound care and emergency-department related trips. Coverage depends on the patient's plan and is never guaranteed, and we do not bill Medicaid. Coverage depends on the member's specific plan.

We do not accept Medicaid or managed-Medicaid products under any circumstances. Private-pay trips are paid by card; call dispatch at (678) 696-1583 with payment questions.

Same-day availability

Because Emory Decatur and Emory Hillandale are inside our core service area, same-day requests to those facilities are usually workable, including late-afternoon discharges. For Emory locations further in Decatur and select areas of Atlanta, same-day is still common but the pickup window is wider.

The honest version: call as early as you can. A morning call for an afternoon discharge nearly always gets a committed time. A 6 p.m. call for a 6:30 p.m. pickup gets our best effort, not a promise.