Healthpointe Medical Group announces it has upgraded its appointment services to assist patients with non-emergency medical transportation as a way to help reduce patient no-shows.
Healthpointe staff may now schedule on-demand or advanced non-emergency services with UberHealth and Lyft Business for their patients in communities located throughout Southern California.
“Patient care is our utmost priority,” says Healthpointe’s Dr Ismael Silva, in a media release from Healthpointe. “By utilizing Uber Health and Lyft Business, we can ensure that patients receive the professional care that they seek in a timely manner.”
Uber Health describes its services as a HIPAA-compliant way for providers to protect their patients’ information while coordinating rides. Likewise, Uber states that passengers do not need the Uber app or a smartphone to take advantage of the service.
Lyft Business reports that rides for patients can be managed from one central location, and describes the services as one that can reduce costs and provide trip tracking records. This is an important feature of the service, since many individuals who lack transportation may also lack a smartphone. A smartphone app is required to access the ride sharing services normally offered by Uber and Lyft.
“Digital transportation network companies have the potential to disrupt medical transportation,” according to an opinion piece published in the September 6, 2016, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) authored by Brian Powers, Scott Rinefort, and Sachin H. Jain, MD. The authors of that article add, “Many payers have embraced nonemergency medical transportation benefits because it makes sense to enable patients to receive necessary care.”
Compared to emergency medical transport services, however, nonemergency medial transportation drivers typically lack any meaningful medical training. It is thought by the authors of the JAMA article, however, that some skills may develop as their experience transporting patients with special needs or illness increases.
Healthpointe is located in four major counties in Southern California (Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, and Riverside County), and the system has 12 locations throughout southern California that offer multi-specialty healthcare. Physical therapy, occupational medicine—including return to work and work conditioning—spine surgery and neurosurgery are among the patient services the group provides.
Sports medicine and sports injury treatment are also performed at 11 of its locations.
Healthpointe Medical Clinics are located in the cities of Anaheim, Corona, Colton, Garden Grove, Irwindale, La Mirada, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Ontario, Perris, and Temecula.
[Source(s): Healthpointe, PRWeb]
