Could ride-hailing platforms solve the problems of transportation in healthcare?

Patients living in rural, suburban or urban areas with poor infrastructure often don’t have the proper means to get to the doctor’s appointment on time. In extreme cases, they could even wait for emergency situations so they can call an ambulance and receive care in a hospital. In the last months, both giant ridesharing companies, Uber and Lyft announced non-emergency medical transportation services, while start-ups, such as Circulation also promise to deal with the issue. Could smartphones and networked services solve transportation in healthcare? Why is getting to the doctor such a hassle? There is a little village in rural Hungary, Tarnokreti, where only two buses per day transport people to the nearest town. One in the morning and one in the evening. There is no constant medical service; the GP visits the settlement once every week. For years, receiving more complex care or even for an X-ray, patients had had to arrange some means of transportation – if they didn’t want to wait for hours for the bus. However, being in need of support from relatives or friends with cars causes much discomfort – so many people decided, they were rather not going to the doctor’s appointment. The problem is well-known in many parts of the world. No matter whether in Europe, the US or South Asia, people living in rural areas, but also more impoverished people in suburban and urban settings, can have trouble with transportation. Some households don’t have a vehicle or share one am...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Future of Medicine Healthcare Design Hospital lyft medical transportation patient ride-hailing startup uber Source Type: blogs