On-demand transportation company Lyft has partnered with Hackensack Meridian Health, a nonprofit system headquartered in Edison, New Jersey, to establish a rideshare command center geared toward providing non-emergency medical transportation to patients in need of a ride.
As part of the center, Lyft can connect with patients, providers and care coordinators to make the transportation process run smoothly. Hackensack Meridian will be able to better anticipate the demand for rides, and dispatch agents will be able to track ride progress in real time. Additionally, a digital map will pinpoint specific pick-up and drop-off locations so patients and drivers can more easily locate each other.
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Going forward, the center hopes to provide transportation to individuals participating in clinical trials at the health system’s John Theurer Cancer Center.
“In the coming months, Hackensack Meridian Health’s centralized command center plans a multi-phase expansion that will extend to all 16-network hospital campuses to deliver high reliability and compassionate healthcare that is both timely and safe,” Hackensack Meridian co-CEO John Lloyd said in a press release.
The news of this command center comes after Hackensack Meridian’s JFK Medical Center launched a pilot with Lyft for patients who needed transportation home in non-emergency cases.
Lyft has been making moves in the healthcare realm as of late. Earlier this year, it partnered with Allscripts to integrate its service into electronic health records, thereby making it easier to book a car as part of a healthcare appointment. The company also signed a deal with Acuity Link, a medical transportation logistics management business, to integrate Lyft into Acuity’s software dashboard.
Uber is also interested in NEMT work. The San Francisco organization launched Uber Health, a service that allows healthcare organizations to order rides for patients to get to and from appointments. It has also worked with hospitals, including MedStar and Trinity Health – New England.
Meanwhile, other companies like Veyo and Circulation are doing similar work in healthcare by aiming to assist the 3.6 million Americans who miss or delay care due to transportation problems, according to the Community Transportation Association.
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