INDUSTRY
Healthcare
Challenge
Elderly and low-income patients often lack reliable transportation to medical appointments and quality care. Missed appointments lead to poor health outcomes, more expensive care, and lower clinic revenue.
Learn MoreSolution
RoundTrip integrated the Lyft Concierge API into its platform to help health systems and payers send patient courtesy rides. They worked with Lyft to establish communication workflows and to map location venues, to maximize driver-rider connection rates.
Learn MoreImpact
- No-show rate below 4%, compared to industry average of over 20%
- 97% success rate
- 99% on-time arrival rate
- 40% reduction in costs
The Challenge
In the US, transportation obstacles cause 30% of missed medical appointments. When that happens, those patients often get sicker. The result is a visit to the emergency room or the hospital, at an exponentially higher cost to the system and to the patient’s health.
The population that RoundTrip serves is typically older and on the low end of the socioeconomic scale. Patients may have cognitive or physical challenges that merit special care and consideration. RoundTrip passengers don’t necessarily have smartphones, may not speak English, and may depend on healthcare staff or personal caregivers to manage their transportation.
To add to the confusion, health system campuses can be difficult to navigate, making it even harder to connect drivers and passengers.
"Many patients and organizations have given up on transportation, and you can’t blame them. If I were on dialysis, and after five or ten times of not being told where my ride is or when it’s going to arrive, I’d be frustrated, too."
Mark Switaj
Founder and CEO, RoundTrip
The Opportunity
RoundTrip initially partnered only with NEMT vendors offering wheelchair or stretcher options. When customers began demanding solutions for ambulatory patients, the RoundTrip team started a discussion with Lyft Business.
The Solution
The RoundTrip team connected their platform with the Lyft Concierge API. Now, healthcare payers and health systems can access Lyft’s nationwide network of drivers with the click of a button.
RoundTrip product designers also worked with Lyft to keep care coordinators, patients, and healthcare organizations informed throughout each ride sequence. Together, the two teams mapped health system venues to clarify pickup locations and maximize driver-rider connection rates. Now, when a care coordinator schedules a ride for a patient, they can indicate a venue-mapped zone such as laboratory entrance or main entrance.
Top benefits include:
Clear insight into each ride
Switaj says the data that Lyft provides creates unprecedented value for patients and healthcare customers. “The data is incredibly powerful. We know the driver, we know the location, we know the cost. That helps us educate the rider, so she’s no longer blinded to her ride experience.”Mark Switaj
Delivering on the company’s promise
RoundTrip is delivering dramatically on its main metric for success: reducing missed appointments. Its healthcare customers report no-show rates of less than 4%, compared to the national average of 20%.“We are five times better than the national average, in terms of reducing missed appointments. 97% of all our rides result in patients getting to their healthcare destinations.”Mark Switaj
Cultural alignment
The RoundTrip team was looking for a rideshare partner who would be hyperfocused on working together to ensure healthcare access for everyone, including those with transportation obstacles. They found that with Lyft Business.“With the Lyft team, it was not a ‘What’s in it for me?’ mentality — it was, ‘What’s in it for the patient?’ That absolutely speaks to the culture of our organization.”Mark Switaj
Looking Ahead
Through its Lyft partnership, RoundTrip has become a true transportation aggregator for healthcare, and the two teams continue to work together to transform NEMT. Today, they’re exploring ways to increase patient engagement so that the ride can be the beginning of a patient-centered healthcare experience, rather than just a means of getting from one place to another.
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