Dialysis, then a five-mile walk home: transportation service short of money

The man in charge of a transportation service serving elderly St. Mary people in need of medical care says the service faces a financial crunch. And the money problems are leading to tough choices.
“Our program has been cut so drastically that we have to prioritize,” Jeffery Beverly, who works with the St. Mary Community Action Agency’s transportation service, told the Parish Council at the Sept. 23 meeting.
What isn’t clear yet is where additional money might come from.
St. Mary Parish Transportation runs buses “for elderly and senior citizens for doctor appointments, errands to the bank, stores, and etc.,” according to a program website.
The service receives a $124,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation and Development. But Beverly said the grant requires a 50% match. An allocation from the parish could be on the way at the end of the year. Chief Administrative Office Paul Governale said he’ll do his best to find funding.
Meanwhile, the consequences pile up. Much of the discussion centered on dialysis patients.
One of them is Rose Morgan, who came to the Parish Council lectern with the aid of a walker.
Morgan told the council that she is no longer able to drive, and her daughter has to work and can’t always take Morgan for treatment.
“If I don’t ride the bus,” Morgan said, “I don’t get there.”
Trina Dural is a charge nurse at Fresenius Medical Care, a dialysis provider with facilities in Franklin and Morgan City. She said some of the company’s 65 patients face a five- to six-mile walk home after four hours of dialysis treatment.
“I’m pleading with you that this is not something that you can take lightly,” Dural told the council.
The Parish Council has been struggling to balance its budget for the last couple of years, sometimes with cuts in contributions to nongovernmental entities providing public services. There was no immediate answer about what to do about the transportation service.
Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews suggested asking for support from Ochsner St. Mary and Bayou Bend Health System, which presumably would benefit from more patient access to their services.
But Dural said federal rules prohibit such arrangements as conflicts of interest.
Mathews also suggested looking to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Beverly said he considered seeking help from the parish’s municipalities. But he’s been told that city budgets are tight, too.
The locals may turn to state and federal legislators for help.
“We really need to go to Baton Rouge and the federals,” Parish President Sam Jones said.