In 1915, the Iowa State legislature first appropriated public funds for the transportation of patients to Iowa City. The Perkins Act of 1915, which provided for the medical care of indigent children at University Hospitals, was followed by the Haskell-Klaus Act of 1919, which extended state-supported medical care to indigent adults as well. Up until 1932, these patients were moved from their homes to University Hospitals by taxis, buses, trains, private ambulances and privately owned cars. This was both inconvenient for the patients and costly for the Hospital, and, in 1932 a state-wide, hospital-owned ambulance service was introduced. The first car, a seven-passenger Buick, was purchased in May 1932; by July of 1934, seventeen buicks were in use.

39. University Hospital vehicles, 1947, courtesy of the University of Iowa Archives

40. Hospital vehicles with mileage, October 1945, courtesy of the University of Iowa Archives