October 12, 2023

Survey on Passenger Rail and Specialty Care Accessibility

Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, All Aboard Washington, and researchers from the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences are conducting research on the impact of restoring passenger rail service in Central Washington on specialty medical care accessibility. The researchers are seeking feedback from physicians and advance practitioners from Central Washington communities who refer patients for care in a brief survey on how patients in Central Washington get to specialty medical care appointments more than one hour away by car. Responses to this survey will help planners evaluate the effectiveness of current transportation infrastructure for patients. The results of the survey will be summarized and presented to the Federal Railroad Administration in November 2023 and to the Washington State Department of Transportation and Washington legislators in January 2024. Participation is completely voluntary and will take approximately five minutes. Take the survey.

Because of the anonymous nature of the survey, participants will experience minimal risk. Breach of confidentiality is the only potential risk, which will be minimized by not collecting direct personal identifiers and by careful data management plans. There are no direct benefits to survey participants. Participation in the survey is completely voluntary. The PNWU Institutional Review Board has reviewed this study. Results of the study will be available for public review on both the All Aboard Washington and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility websites in the fall of 2023.