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"GEER NURSING AND REHABILITATION CENTER DIAL-A-RIDE
Not-for-profit Community Benefit Program of the Year
This may seem counter-intuitive: a nursing facility
funding a vital program that helps the elderly and persons
with disabilities to live at home, but it is exactly what
the Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center’s Dial-A-Ride
program and its innovative initiative Just-One-Call do.
While Dial-A-Ride manages over 6,000 rides yearly,
client Julia Segalla’s experiences are telling and personal.
Julia, who is blind with other limitations, says, “Geer’s
services are beyond compare. We would be very much
isolated without their help.”
     Her experiences are shared by other customers as Greer’s
annual satisfaction survey shows a 98 percent positive rating
for Dial-A-Ride, and no member of Geer’s Board of
Directors has ever reported any complaints.
Everyone raves about the service. Town of Sharon’s
Social Services Agent Ella Clark called it “sensitive, affordable,
and professionally administered.” It takes riders to
requested destinations any day of the week except Sunday.
Access to health care has significantly increased as evidenced
by a fourfold increase in driving from 20 hours at
the program’s inception to over 80 hours per week now,
with a 5 percent increase in rides projected for 2010.
Not content with the challenge of having the Dial-ARide
try to accommodate clients’ schedules, Geer Administrator
John Horstman said they recently began a Just-
One-Call program to address the nagging problems caused
by clients making appointments that the bus service had to
try to accommodate. With Just-One-Call, when someone
needs an appointment, the client informs the Dial-A-Ride
dispatcher what he or she needs. The dispatcher, in turn,
sets up the appointment with the provider on behalf of the
client based on a time when transportation is definitely
available.
     Geer Board Chairman Russell Riva summarized it best
by saying that “[Dial-A-Ride] brings peace of mind to both
the rider and their families, and the communities would
be lost without these rides. Plus, I hear from friends that
they saw the Greer bus again and it is ‘everywhere.’” These
days, social responsibility is flourishing in and around
Canaan, Conn.
      Each not-for-profit nursing facility, as part of its mission,
agrees to develop programs that address unmet community
needs within the surrounding area.
—Tom Burke"