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Health See other Health Articles Title: Ridesharing and the Patient Experience Our first story brings us to a big money waster: Ambulance rides. A recent New York Times report reinforces the fact that many patients don't need an ambulance to get to the hospital. Ambulance trips cost patients thousands of dollars and they cost the country tens of billions of dollars every year. But 30 percent of these ambulance rides are completely unnecessary. Are ride share services like Uber and Lyft the solution? Maybe. They're convenient, they're affordable and familiar to patients and as luck has it, both companies are diving deeper into non-medical emergency transportation.They're looking at it today and continue to advance it. Here's how C-suites and clinicians can leverage Uber and Lyft to save money across the board. First, executives can examine whether a partnership with either company would help their business model and help their patients. As we know, medicine today is very competitive, particularly in big city markets where Uber and Lyft tend to thrive. When people miss their appointments, the bottom line and patient outcomes suffer, so executives must do their part to encourage such an arrangement. If we can get patients to the hospital or to their appointment, they're gonna do better. Clinicians can also take a more proactive role in ensuring their patients arrive on time. We know that when patients arrive late it backs up our office flow and results in longer wait times. Workflow in a clinic is critical to success. Uber Health, for example, allows physicians to actually schedule rides for their patients. And even if a healthcare system doesn't enlist the help of Uber or Lyft, we doctors can gently remind our patients that if it's not an emergency, they can always pull up their rideshare app instead of dialing 9-1-1. This will save time and money. Using a rideshare application may be a good way to improve attendance to the office visits and may be a great way to foster patient engagement. We all know from prior data that this improves outcomes significantly. Poster Comment: In my tachychardia episode Doc couldn't stop it. Called an ambulance to take me to hospital ER; wouldn't let me take transit. Now, I don't need Doc or ER; just a firm, three second pressure on left carotid/vagal. Best technique; got from Dr. Burnstein on Hister radio show. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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