About
Named for a road,
not for a feeling
The wide path in this industry is easy, well traveled, and it fails people every day. We are choosing the other one on purpose.
The name
Matthew 7:13–14
Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life.
Matthew 7:13–14The name is not decoration. It is a description of a choice this company makes daily, and it is the reason we can be specific about what we will and will not do.
The wide path in medical transport looks like this: hire whoever is available instead of whoever is right. Skip the training because it takes time. Send the vehicle that is good enough instead of the one that is clean. Let the phone go to voicemail at the end of a shift. Accept that ninety minutes late is just how it is.
None of that happens because operators are bad people. It happens because the standards in this field are low enough that cutting a corner almost never costs anything. Patients cannot easily go somewhere else. Facilities are frustrated but often have no better option. Nobody is watching closely enough to demand better.
That is exactly why holding the standard is the whole business.
The story behind it
The woman who paid a thousand dollars she did not owe
An elderly woman called a transport company asking for stretcher service to two medical appointments. The cost would be roughly a thousand dollars out of pocket. She agreed without hesitating.
Here is what made it unforgettable. She was not a stretcher patient. She used a wheelchair, and her wheelchair transportation was covered by her insurance in full. She did not need to spend a single dollar.
She paid a thousand dollars of her own money, likely on a fixed income, to avoid the wheelchair companies her plan already covered. She had been left waiting, talked over, forgotten and let down so many times that paying was worth it just to feel safe.
That is not an anomaly. It is a symptom of an industry that normalized failure and abandoned the people who depend on it most.
Founder
Zachary Russ
Firefighter / Paramedic / Founder
Russ is a certified firefighter and a licensed paramedic. He has spent his working life on the other end of the worst day somebody is having, and he built this company because he kept seeing the same people failed on the ordinary days in between.
Before founding Narrow Path he served as Operations Supervisor for a medical transportation operation in the Cincinnati area, where he was responsible for scheduling and dispatch, driver hiring and training, vehicle readiness and maintenance programs, documentation standards, and the written procedures that govern how a trip actually runs. He spoke daily with nurses, social workers, discharge planners and schedulers across the region.
He heard the same stories from all of them. Companies arriving hours late. Companies that simply never came. Dispatch lines that rang and rang. Vehicles that were dirty and neglected. Drivers who never said a word to the person in the back.
He also heard from the patients. No air conditioning in July. No heat in January. Being handled like cargo. One patient kept in the hospital an extra night, at their own expense, because the transport company never showed up for the discharge.
Why the fire service matters here. The habits are the same ones this work needs: check the equipment before the shift, not after. Say your name to the person you are helping. Move deliberately when someone is frightened. Do the boring parts correctly every single time, because that is what makes the hard parts survivable.
The test we actually use
Would I put my own grandmother in that vehicle, with that driver, on that trip?
If the answer is no, the trip moves, the vehicle stays home, or the person does not get hired. It is not a slogan on a wall. It is the deciding question.
It governs who we hire
Character first, then skill. Motor vehicle records reviewed before an offer, background checks, drug testing, and training that is written down rather than assumed.
It governs the vehicles
A written maintenance program, documented pre-trip and post-trip inspections, and a clean interior every morning rather than whenever somebody gets to it.
It governs the schedule
We do not book more trips than we can run well. A day that is honestly full beats a day that is quietly overbooked and unravels by ten in the morning.
Where the name comes from
On faith, said plainly
Caring for the sick, the elderly and the vulnerable is central to the Christian faith. For our founder, building this company is an act of service, not a marketing angle.
That conviction shows up in operating decisions rather than in language. It is why a trip gets moved instead of run tired. It is why we will tell you we cannot cover a Friday rather than take the booking and hope. It is why the people in these vehicles are treated as people who matter, because we believe they do.
You do not have to share any of it to ride with us, and you will never be asked about it.
What we will not tell you
Honesty is the differentiator, so it applies to us too
This industry is full of claims nobody checks. Here is what you will not find on this website.
No invented history
We will not describe experience this company has not had, or a track record it has not yet earned. When there is a number worth reporting, we will report the real one.
No borrowed reviews
There are no testimonials on this site because there are none to publish yet. When patients say something worth repeating, we will ask permission first.
No promises past our license
We will not quote a service we are not authorized and equipped to deliver. If you ask for something outside our scope, you will get a straight no and, where we can, a name worth calling.
Start a conversation
We would like to hear who you are caring for
No pressure and no obligation. Tell us the situation and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.