We understand that hospital systems are complex—both operationally and physically with regard to layouts and buildings. That’s why we’ve put together a few posts with some tips and resources to help you use Uber Health in various situations across your hospital. This post focuses on using Uber Health for patient discharge. You can find our suggestions for using Uber Health for outpatient appointments here.
Using Uber Health to help improve throughput
We hear from many of our hospital partners that replacing taxi vouchers for rides with Uber Health has not only saved them money, but it has also greatly improved patient satisfaction because the Uber platform reduces wait times and because drivers’ vehicles tend to be of better quality.
| Read how Boston Medical Center saved $500k by switching to Uber Health. |
After a ride is requested, drivers can arrive in just a few minutes. To make Uber Health successful for emergency-room or in-patient discharge, it’s important to plan ahead so that riders are ready when the driver arrives.
A few methods you can use
- Discharge lounge or hospitality desk: Send patients to the lobby and have discharge or hospitality staff request a ride for them when they’re ready. If needed, have doctors or case managers indicate ride approval in your EHR, or hand the patient a slip of paper to give to the front desk (one hospital calls it a “ticket to ride”). Don’t have 24/7 staff? Train the overnight security team to request rides at night.
- Flexible Rides: As soon as you identify discharge day, you can set up the ride in the Uber Health dashboard to be used at any point that day. When the patient is in the lobby and ready to go, they can initiate the ride from their own phone by simply replying to a text message.
- Schedule a ride in advance: Our scheduling tool lets you request a scheduled ride as little as 5 minutes in advance or as much as 30 days ahead. If you know that a patient needs some extra time and is OK waiting for a few minutes, scheduling 5 to 10 minutes in advance is also an option.
- Transport teams and central scheduling: Have transport teams call a central scheduling office when they arrive in the lobby with the patient, and the scheduling office can request the ride on their behalf.
Other tips
- Involve the valet team: Getting the valet team on board is helpful so that someone can be on the ground to help the patients identify the correct vehicles, especially in crowded pickup zones or traffic circles. You can create a sign that says “Uber Pickup” to indicate a pickup spot or have team members hold it up to help drivers find them.
- Complicated pickup zones? Use Uber’s designated pickups to map out different pickup spots for your emergency room and main entrance so that drivers know exactly which door to go to when they accept the ride request.
- Rider education: Making sure riders know what to expect will also improve the pickup experience. Use the Rider 101 sheet to help riders learn about Uber and our safety features, and to help find the right vehicles.
- No cell phones? Riders should confirm the driver’s license plate number, and the car’s color, make, and model. If they don’t get this information by a text message, have a coordinator write it down for them. For added security, the rider should ask the driver to say the rider’s first name.
Other ways to use Uber
- Ideas beyond appointments and discharge
- Transfers between sites and hospitals for patients and families
- Enabling families to visit their loved ones
- Moving caregivers and home health visits
- Returning families to their cars if they’ve traveled with the patient to another facility for a transfer
- Replacements for existing van services to reduce shared transport
- Research and clinical trials
- Helping patients get to flu shot clinics or pharmacies
- Additional Uber for Business solutions
- Gift cards: Give an Uber gift card for rides or food (Uber Eats) to boost employee morale or help families of patients get to/from the hospital
- Employee travel: Support your staff in getting to and from work with a customized travel program, while freeing up parking spots for patients
- Uber Eats: Create your meal delivery program for staff, seniors, or recently discharged patients
- Vouchers: Subsidize meals or rides for patients or staff by partially paying through Vouchers
- General tips
- When riders can't find their drivers
- Drivers wait for five minutes before they can cancel and collect a cancellation fee. If the rider isn't able to find the driver, both the rider and the coordinator can call the driver and try to connect the rider and driver.
- If the dashboard or text message says the ride was canceled, make sure the rider knows who to contact at your organization so that you can request another ride.
- The coordinator who set up the ride will get an email notifying them that the rider wasn’t picked up.
- Use the “Notes to driver” field to share pickup information like “Standing underneath blue awning.”
- When riders can't find their drivers
For more information and tips to get set up and started, check out our Administrator Guide and Coordinator Guide.
As a reminder, Uber is committed to the safety of riders and drivers. Everyone must follow advice from public health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that ridesharing should not be used for people diagnosed with COVID-19 or for symptomatic riders who suspect they may have it. Read more about the steps Uber is taking to help keep communities safe.
Posted by Leor Shtull-Leber
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