Generally I would call and attempt to make contact if someone wasn’t waiting for me. But doctors offices and clinics get some leeway because of the nature of the situation, you don’t want to be the asshole that left someone stranded at a doctors office. Also, they generally tip well because they are glad they didn’t have to depend on someone to take them and wait for them.
But dialysis clinics are kind of unique in that they cannot release a patient if they are still bleeding, which is often the case due to their condition. The front desk calls a ride for them once treatment is complete but it appears that many times the patient springs a leak once they are back in the waiting area.
Heh, thanks. I have the Uber app on my phone. I’ve tried it a few times but have never been in an area populous enough for there to be a car available.
I don’t think it’s a matter of the area being desolate as much as it’s a matter of there not being much demand for any sort of hired car. There are a fair amount of places I’ve been where it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it was impossible to get a ride without arranging it hours or even days in advance. And the reason I say it wouldn’t surprise me rather than that I’ve actually encountered it is because it’s clear that those areas are car- dependent and so I have a car when I’m there even if it means I have to rent one at the airport. I have a niece who lives in Pennsylvania. It is not an urban area and not all that densely populated, but she’s also not miles from her nearest neighbor. But everyone has a car so the locals wouldn’t use Uber or cabs very often and there’s nothing to attract visitors, so it’s not like people are flying into the airport and need a cab to their hotel and then will be using cabs to get around to restaurants and tourist attractions during their visit - I’d be shocked if I could get an Uber there.
You are supposed to attempt to contact them and give them five minutes until you drive off. Then you get paid some amount and they get a no show charge.
The dialysis people do contact you and pled for you to wait. Kind of hard to say no and not feel like an asshole.
Dialysis patient chiming in. I used Lyft. No one had to call for me. When I was ready to go, I’d summon one on the app, and they usually picked me up in 5-10 minutes. They were very reliable, in my experience.
I’m not sure I understand why the front desk staff is calling and why they are calling before the patient is ready to leave, unless it takes a really long time from requesting a ride to the car arriving.
You’d think even in areas as you describe there would still be call for a hired car to take you somewhere.
For instance, if I am at the local(ish) bar and get drunk I would not want to drive home and an Uber would be really useful (and I would have to take one back the next day to get my car or have someone drive me). Chances are I am not walking distance to home.
I guess in those places you have to arrange a hired car ahead of time or arrange for a designated driver or something. Since my earlier post, I remembered something that happened this summer. My family had a small reunion at a resort in the mountains. One of my cousins wanted to arrive on Thursday but he doesn’t drive and everyone who could drive him was arriving on Friday. He took a bus or train and was planning on taking a cab from the station to the resort except he couldn’t get one for hours. He called the resort and someone came to pick him up - apparently there are some taxis up there but none were available when he arrived. Apparently there was some call for taxis but not enough for there to be enough of them that you could count on getting a car without advance arrangements
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