When sitting up isn't an option, we still get them home safely.
Two-person crews, hospital-grade stretchers, and bariatric capacity for clients other transport companies turn away. Designed for hospital discharges, inter-facility transfers, and bedridden patients across Greater Houston.
When standard transport simply isn't enough.
The hospital said your mother is being discharged tomorrow morning. She can't sit up. The case manager hands you a list of transport companies. The first three either don't return calls, can't accommodate a stretcher, or quote a price that sounds like a downpayment on a car.
Or maybe it's your husband — three weeks post-surgery, still on bed rest, with a follow-up appointment at the surgeon's office across town. You've been told he can't sit upright for the 45-minute ride. So now what? An ambulance? Insurance won't cover it. A friend with a pickup truck? Absolutely not.
Or maybe you're a bariatric patient yourself — at 420 pounds — and you've called four transport companies who all said their equipment "isn't rated" for you. You're stranded at home, unable to make the cardiology appointment your life depends on, and nobody seems to care.
Stretcher and bariatric transport is where the holes in America's medical transportation system show up most clearly. The patients who need it most are the ones the system fails first.
The wrong transport isn't just inconvenient — it's dangerous.
When stretcher and bariatric transport is handled badly, the consequences land squarely on the patient and the family.
-
Improper transfers cause real injuries. A solo driver attempting to move a post-surgical or bedridden patient from bed to stretcher without training, equipment, or a second set of hands is how falls happen. Fractures. Wound dehiscence. Re-admission.
-
Bariatric exclusion blocks medical care. When transport companies refuse heavy-set patients because their equipment is rated to 350 lbs, those patients stop going to specialists. Diabetes worsens. Heart conditions go unmonitored. The cost is measured in years of life.
-
Hospital readmissions skyrocket. Discharge transport that arrives late, handles the patient roughly, or drops them at the curb without bringing them inside is a leading driver of 30-day readmissions — which carry CMS penalties and devastate families.
-
Family members get hurt trying to help. Adult children attempting to lift a parent from a wheelchair to a vehicle have ended up with hernias, back injuries, and emergency room visits of their own. This is not a job for an amateur.
-
Dignity is the first casualty. Being uncovered, jostled, or talked about in third person while being moved is humiliating — and patients remember it. Trust in the healthcare system erodes. Compliance drops.
-
The clock punishes everyone. Hospital discharge bays back up when transport doesn't show. Nursing facility intake windows close. Surgical pre-op slots get re-assigned. The downstream cost of a missed stretcher pickup is enormous.
Stretcher transport done the way it should be.
Astra Mobility's Stretcher & Bariatric service was built around the patients other companies turn down, and the discharge moments other companies botch. Here's what makes the difference:
-
Two-person crews on every stretcher run. No exceptions. Every transfer is performed by a trained team — one to manage the head and direct the move, one to manage the foot and equipment. Safe for the patient. Safe for our crew.
-
Bariatric capacity up to 750 lbs. Reinforced stretchers, wider lift-equipped vehicles, and crews trained in bariatric handling. We don't ask your weight to disqualify you — we ask so we can send the right equipment.
-
True bedside-to-bedside service. We come into the hospital room, manage the transfer with the nursing staff, ride with the patient, and place them back into bed at home or at the receiving facility. Not curb-to-curb. Not lobby-to-lobby.
-
Hospital and facility coordination. Our dispatch desk talks directly to case managers, discharge planners, and DON offices. We receive face sheets, confirm orders, and time arrivals to the bay — not just to the building.
-
Vitals monitoring en route. For longer transfers and medically fragile clients, our crews can monitor pulse, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation during transport. We are not an ambulance — but we are not blind to a patient's condition either.
-
Climate-controlled, modern stretcher vehicles. Hydraulic lift-gates, secured tracks, oxygen-capable interiors, and sanitized between every patient. Houston heat is brutal — our vehicles are cool, clean, and built for the job.
-
Long-distance and inter-facility ready. Hospital to nursing home. Sugar Land to Galveston. Houston to Austin. We routinely run multi-hour stretcher transfers with proper rest, repositioning, and equipment — at flat, transparent rates.
Stretcher transport is the right fit when…
Hospital discharge home
Post-op patients, recovering stroke patients, and anyone leaving the hospital who cannot sit upright for the ride home. We coordinate directly with case management.
Inter-facility transfers
Hospital to nursing home, SNF to hospital for procedures, LTAC to home, hospice transitions. We handle the paperwork, the timing, and the patient — together.
Bariatric clients
Patients above the 350 lb capacity that most NEMT companies cap at. We carry equipment rated up to 750 lbs and treat bariatric clients with the dignity they deserve.
Hospice & palliative transitions
Coming home to be with family in the final chapter. Going to a hospice house. Every moment matters and we treat the trip with the gentleness it deserves.
Long-distance medical transfers
Houston to Dallas. Sugar Land to San Antonio. Multi-hour transports for specialty appointments, family relocations, or out-of-area surgical centers. Flat rates, full crews.
Bedridden home patients
For homebound clients needing wound care visits, imaging, infusion appointments, or specialist consults — when sitting up isn't an option and an ambulance is overkill.
When the moment matters, they showed up.
"My husband came home from heart surgery on a stretcher. The Astra crew was at the hospital before we were ready, helped the nurses with the transfer, and got him into his own bed at home without him so much as wincing. They were professionals from start to finish."
"I'm a case manager at a Houston hospital. Astra is on my preferred list because they handle the calls I dread most — bariatric discharges. They never make the patient feel like a problem. That matters more than people realize."
"After being told by three companies they couldn't take me because of my weight, I called Astra. Their dispatcher just asked questions to send the right equipment — never made me feel embarrassed. They got me to my cardiology appointment with zero drama. I'm a customer for life."