ALAMOSA — It’s always difficult to be without transportation, but that’s especially true in the San Luis Valley where a routine visit to the doctor can be a 30-mile, one-way trip.  

Friends and relatives can help but only so much. And when the medical appointment is in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver or some other location in the state, the challenge becomes infinitely larger, sometimes resulting in people having to cancel a medical appointment scheduled weeks before simply because they have no way to get there.  

That is precisely when a business like SLV Transportation Red Willows can step in and provide a much-needed service.  

For the last 26 years, SLV Transportation has provided non-emergent medical transportation to people - not just to medical appointments in the Valley but anywhere in the state - whose Medicaid coverage reimburses for trips to medical appointments.  

The “L” in their name might as well stand for local. 

“All of our employees are local,” says SLV Transportation owner Kendra Lambert, “which means the wages we pay is spent locally. All of our purchases are made locally, and we support local charities. In other words, money from our business stays in the Valley.” 

Over the years, SLV Transportation has been built to handle the needs of their customers. They have 26 vehicles in their fleet, distinctive looking vehicles with “Red Willows” painted on the side” and including some vans that are equipped to transport people who use wheelchairs. The company employs 19 drivers, five office staff and two mechanics. 

In addition to being locally owned and operated, one of the most noteworthy things about the business is their devotion to their clients.  

This is not a shuttle service. As Mark Simmons, executive director, says, “We are a one-person, one-car medical transportation company.”  Hiring only local drivers means that, sometimes, the driver will have known the person they’re transporting for years. Their transportation services are door to door and, although they are not an on-call service, if they have enough notice in scheduling, their services are offered 24/7.  

Where drivers with competitors’ companies will take a person outside of the Valley, drop them off at their medical appointment and, when they are finished, another driver is supposed to come and pick the person up (which, has occasionally, not happened), SLV Transportation’s drivers will stay with their passenger while they have their appointment and then bring them back to the Valley and home when they’re finished.  

Local appointments are handled differently; a passenger taken to a local doctor will be dropped off and picked up by, perhaps, a different driver.  But with SLV Transportation being based in the Valley, there is no risk that the passenger will be stranded.  

Those are the business practices SLV Transportation has had in place for more than two decades. But when a major competitor – based outside of the Valley and one of the largest medical transportation companies in Colorado - had their contract with the state canceled in recent weeks, SLV Transportation’s volume of business increased dramatically almost overnight.  

“We were absolutely overwhelmed at first,” Lambert says, “but we’re doing it, and our service is still as good as ever.” 

To make sure that continued to be the case, the company made a significant investment and hired three more drivers, not an easy decision given how long it takes for the company to be reimbursed by the state. But it was an investment they committed to making.  

And now SLV Transportation is a little concerned.  

This week, Denver District Court allowed the competing company to temporarily resume transporting people but only for 14 days.  

Lambert is concerned that, after making investments to accommodate new customers, those customers may choose to return to their previous provider, even if the company is only in business for a short while. 

For now, Lambert and Simmons can only hope their new clients have experienced the value of working with a fully committed, locally based company with a long history in the Valley and will continue to use their services going into the future. 

Anyone with Medicaid coverage that includes non-emergent medical transport who is in need of medical transport or interested in learning more is encouraged to either go to the SLV Transportation website at www.redwillows or call 719-589-5734.