UberHealth
Problem: We learned from our provider partners that transportation is a common barrier to access in health care. It affects many demographics, but it is more acute for demographics that have fewer economic and social resources available to them, including patients being treated for substance use disorders.
Goals of our tech pilot:
See if nontraditional transportation like ridesharing apps could remove transportation barriers for patients.
Understand whether removing transportation barriers could increase attendance at OUD appointments.
Solution: RealWorks decided to pursue a partnership with UberHealth. This provided smooth, rapid implementation of the pilot through an existing HIPAA compliant platform, as well as cheaper rides. Realworks offered rides over a 5 month period to patients being treated for OUD by three pilot practices in the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky region.
Results: Across all three practices, the no-show rate of those who accepted a free round-trip ride to their appointments was less than the practices’ baseline no-show rates.
Impact/Learnings: While this pilot was a promising start, more work is needed to develop the most effective, scalable interventions possible. The first step is to show that this proof-of-concept can be deployed at a larger scale.
For a more in depth understanding of our pilot, take a look at our whitepaper coming out soon!