In June 2009, Dr. Jalil Safaei from the University of Northern British Columbia completed a two-year research study to evaluate whether NH Connections was improving access to health care in rural and northern BC. During the study, the researchers looked at the demographic, socioeconomic and health profiles of residents in rural, remote and northern communities in BC who have used NH Connections.
The results of the evaluation found that many clients utilize the service repeatedly to travel to physician examinations, non-surgical treatments, to undergo surgery and for post-surgical follow-up. The evaluation found that clients had positive perceptions of the program, as expressed by their high ratings of the service and the satiscation they reported in their comments. Safaei concluded that "the NH Connections service appears to have succeeded quite well in achieving its main objective of enhancing northern communities' access to healthcare" (p. 34).
Since the inception of the NH Connections transportation service in 2006, ridership numbers have been closely monitored. Long distance ridership increased 141% from the first to the second year, and increased another 47% between the second and third years. Short distance service has also seen a substantial increase in ridership with 122% growth between the first two years and 41% growth between the second and third years.
During the past three years, NH Connections has noted some important milestones:
- In November 2008, 1012 riders utilized the service, marking the first month that the ridership count surpassed 1000.
- August 2009 saw total ridership volume surpass the 25,000 count, with a total of 25,079 bus rides taken since July 2006.