Uber has taken another remarkable step into the healthcare domain.
The On-demand ride-sharing firm entered into the healthcare segment back in April 2016 by announcing its partnership with Circulation, a digital transportation platform offering third-party, healthcare-associated ride requests. It then introduced Uber Health, a dashboard that lets healthcare providers book and track rides on behalf of their patients over 250 cities in March 2018.
It made an effort to cut down the need for ambulance services by offering an alternative option and reducing the waiting time as well as associated costs. An effect of which was that, as per the economists at the University of Kansas, a 7% decrease was recorded in the rate of ambulance use.
The firm also announced the service of uberASSIST and Uber WAV by entering into partnership with MV transportation to deliver easy riding experience to special need people.
Not only this, Uber also launched an Uber Health API to let healthcare app development company to integrate this option into their healthcare mobility solutions.
And now, the firm has declared a collaboration with Cerner Corporation to cut down the hassle of ride-booking for patients. This announcement was made on the 2nd day of the HLTH conference which was organized in Las Vegas on Monday.
The ride-sharing giant will now let healthcare organizations use Cerner’s EHR to schedule rides for their patients. These patients, upon booking of a ride, will be notified of pick-ups via text messages, a tracking link, or a printout with all the details including license plate number and car model. The Uber Health platform will charge these healthcare organizations for non-emergency ride-booking services, which they could pay on a monthly basis.
This initiative will enable low-income and senior patients easily access comfortable transportation facilities and not miss any appointment because of the absence of same. Something that will encourage patients to not miss any of their appointment and enjoy better healthcare services while cutting down the loss of these organizations because of missed appointments. The loss that counts to nearly $26,000 a year.
“Reliable transportation to and from appointments can help reduce operating costs, patient no-show rates and help improve patient outcomes.” said Dan Trigub, head of Uber Health, “Our goal is to simplify the way healthcare providers can access transportation options — and our work together will accomplish just that.”
Not only this, this effort is also expected to elevate patient satisfaction level.
“Patients who have received transportation via Uber have expressed how helpful it has been due to the timeliness of the driver’s arrival,” said Craig Anderson, Director of Innovation at BayCare, where Cerner’s EHR is deployed, “Specifically, when looking at hospital throughput, Uber Health has been a tremendous asset to BayCare. Our ‘discharge order to door’ time has improved by 65 minutes due to our ability to provide an Uber ride for patients that are in need.”
Now, while this is all about Uber’s efforts towards changing the landscape of Healthcare domain while improving its business and revenue model, it is not the only brand working into this direction.
Uber’s competitor, Lyft has also come up with various facilities and offers in the healthcare segment. One of which is offering covered rides for eligible Medicaid beneficiaries in Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, and Virginia.
This, as a whole, gives an impression that both the top On-demand ride-sharing players are coming into direct competition in the healthcare segment too. So, it would be quite interesting to note down which brand will be leading the charge in the future both in the healthcare and on-demand segments.