Locally-owned medical transport company will help fill need within community

DANVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) -The community gathered to celebrate Fab’s Family Medical Transport with a ribbon-cutting Wednesday.

Danville local and SOVA Health employee Jaime Bethel came up with the idea last March. Seeing patients wait multiple hours for transportation from the hospital got her wheels turning.

“I started doing it because I saw the need for transportation at the hospital,” said Bethel. “People were just stuck there with no way to get home. So, I was like, ‘let’s get it going.’”

Bethel started with one ambulance and now has three. She currently has 15 employees, with five of them being family members.

“Family is everything to me. We have six children. So, it’s always been important to me. We have five sons and a daughter,” added Bethel.

Just like the name says, her family and being fabulous helped pave the road to success.

“That’s what people call me because anytime you ask me how I’m doing I always say, ‘fabulous’ because nobody wants to hear if you’re not, anyway. So, you might as well be fabulous,” said Bethel.

“She’s very resilient,” explained Dakota Dillard, ALS/EMS Provider for Fab’s Family Medical Transport. “She’s had to take some hard knocks in this, like never working inside of an EMS position before and having to learn how our world is severely different from anything else in healthcare. EMS is a 180-degree turn at any given notice, and you never know what you’re truly getting ready to go into.”

They will transport stretcher-bound patients who are discharged from hospitals to their homes, doctors’ offices, nursing homes, or other hospitals.

Their services will help fill a need after LifeCare Medical Transports recently stopped operations.

“With recently losing one of our providers, Fab’s Family Medical Transport will provide needed services to people in our community,” said Anne Moore-Sparks, President of the Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce.

“I think it’s going impact the city tremendously,” said Jonathan Tilley, EMT and Field Supervisor for Fab’s Family Medical Transport. “There’s definitely a need medically for this service. You see patients getting delayed all the time with transportation. ERs are backed up, and I think this will help speed up the process.”

They will begin inspections Thursday. They will begin transportation once inspections are complete.

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