Stretcher Transportation in Atlanta: For Patients Who Can't Sit Up

This is the trip most companies turn down

Call around for a ride for someone who cannot sit up, and you will hear the same thing over and over: we only do wheelchair. A stretcher trip is harder. It takes a second crew member, a vehicle built to lock a stretcher down, and people who know how to move a fragile body from a bed to a stretcher without hurting them or frightening them. Most non-emergency transport companies simply do not staff for it.

Heart2Heart built the company around that trip. Stretcher transportation is our specialty, not a line item we tolerate. When a discharge planner calls at four in the afternoon because the patient going home tonight cannot sit in a wheelchair van, that is a normal Tuesday for us.

Who needs stretcher transportation

The deciding question is not how sick someone is. It is whether they can sit upright, supported, for the length of the ride. If the honest answer is no, they need a stretcher.

• Bed-confined patients who cannot get up without assistance
• Post-surgical patients under orders to stay flat or limit hip and spine flexion
• Patients with severe wounds or pressure injuries where sitting is painful or unsafe
• Patients with advanced weakness, contractures, or poor trunk control
• Hospice and comfort-focused trips where dignity and a gentle ride matter most
• Patients who become short of breath, dizzy, or unstable when raised to a sitting position

Two trained attendants on every stretcher trip

Every stretcher transport we run is staffed with two trained attendants. That is not an upsell — it is how the trip is done safely. One person cannot lift and pivot a patient from bed to stretcher, control the stretcher on a ramp or over a threshold, and manage a doorway at the same time. Two can, and the patient feels the difference immediately: fewer jolts, slower transfers, and someone always at the head of the stretcher talking them through it.

The crew handles the stretcher end-to-end. Families are welcome to help by clearing a path or holding a door, but nobody should ever be asked to lift their own parent into a vehicle.

How loading actually works — the patient stays lying down

Families are usually nervous about this part, so here is the whole sequence. The crew brings the stretcher to the bedside, lowers it to bed height, and transfers the patient across using a draw sheet or slide board with both attendants working together. The patient is never asked to stand, pivot, or sit up.

Once on the stretcher, the patient is secured with body straps and a shoulder harness, covered with blankets, and rolled out feet-first. At the vehicle, the stretcher loads directly into the securement system — the patient does not change position. The head of the stretcher can be raised slightly if they are more comfortable that way, or kept flat the entire trip.

At the destination, the same process runs in reverse, all the way to the bed, exam table, or treatment chair. Door-through-door is standard on every stretcher trip: we do not stop at the curb.

Hospital discharge on a stretcher

Discharge day is where stretcher transport gets called for most often, and where delays hurt the most. A bed is needed, the family has a room ready at home or at a skilled nursing facility, and the only thing standing between the patient and the door is a ride they cannot take sitting up.

We coordinate directly with case managers and floor nurses: confirm the discharge window, get the room number and the receiving address, and arrive with a stretcher and a two-person crew. Call as early in the day as you can — we routinely handle same-day discharges, but an early call is what makes a specific time realistic rather than hopeful.

Facility-to-facility transfers

Hospital to skilled nursing, skilled nursing to long-term acute care, rehab to home, or a move between two facilities across town — these are scheduled, non-emergency stretcher transfers, and they are a large part of what we do in DeKalb County and in Decatur and select areas of Atlanta.

For transfers, we ask for the sending unit and contact, the receiving facility and room, whether the patient travels with oxygen or a wound vac, and any transfer precautions. If the patient needs clinical monitoring en route rather than transport, we will tell you a BLS ambulance is the right call instead of a stretcher van. Sending the wrong vehicle helps nobody.

Stretcher transportation to dialysis

Some dialysis patients cannot sit for the ride even though they tolerate treatment in a chair. Many transport companies will not take those patients at all, which is how people end up missing sessions. We run standing stretcher schedules to dialysis clinics across the Decatur and DeKalb area, three times a week, same crew rhythm each session.

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. We do not accept Medicaid or managed-Medicaid products under any circumstances. Coverage always depends on the patient's specific plan.

Stretcher trips to weddings, funerals, and family events

A stretcher trip does not have to be medical. We take bed-confined patients to their granddaughter's wedding, to a church service, to a funeral, to a birthday dinner. The family usually assumes it is impossible until someone tells them it is not.

These trips take a little more planning — where the stretcher can sit inside the venue, whether there is a step-free entrance, how long we wait — so call further ahead than you would for a clinic run. These are private pay, quoted the same way as any other stretcher trip.

Bariatric and higher-weight patients

Higher-weight stretcher transport depends on the specific equipment and crew available for that trip, so we confirm capability by phone rather than publishing a number that might be wrong for your situation. Call, tell dispatch the patient's approximate weight and mobility, and you will get a straight yes or no — and if it is a no, we will say so rather than send a crew that cannot do the job safely.

What stretcher transportation costs

Stretcher transport is $420 base plus $13.20 per mile. That covers the stretcher-equipped vehicle, both attendants, and door-through-door service at each end. Standard inclusions on every trip: the Comfort Package, door-through-door assistance, and one companion riding along.

The trip calculator gives you a real number in about thirty seconds — enter the pickup and destination, pick stretcher, and you will see the full quote before anyone asks you for a card. For a line-by-line explanation of the rate, see the stretcher transport cost page.

Insurance reality, stated plainly

Stretcher transportation is private pay. 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. Every other stretcher trip — discharge, transfer, appointment, family event — is paid by the patient or family.

We do not accept Medicaid in any form. Private-pay trips are paid by card; call dispatch at (678) 696-1583 with payment questions.

About the facility names on this page

Heart2Heart Medical Transport is an independent transportation provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or contracted with Emory Healthcare, DaVita, or any other hospital, dialysis network, or health system named on this page. We reference those facilities only to describe where we pick up and drop off patients.