What ridesharing has brought to the world is access to transportation on a scale that was unheard of before. Using privately owned cars with their owners or drivers offering rides to customers as a "pool" service, which was the original idea, has bloomed out of proportion and now offers a plethora of services from basic transportation to luxury black cars and even hyper cars. With the ridesharing phenomenon realizing its potential, it still has a long way to go to realize its "full" potential, including the percentage of ridesharing cars driving daily. At the moment they only account for 0.5% (half a percent) of all miles driven.
With ridesharing constantly expanding and trying to find new niche markets to enter, it was natural to conclude that services would reach various transportation reliant services. Circulation is a non-emergency medical transportation service that provides services to over 1,000 healthcare establishments all around the US. circulations' platform is a logistics integration framework connecting patients to healthcare service providers through a scheduling and monitoring application. According to Circulation, around 3.6 million people miss their medical appointments every year due to transportation issues. Circulation is about arranging transportation from any source or means available, enabling patients to reach their appointments on time, every time. This is reached through their app, that connects patients with healthcare service providers through an appointment scheduling platform, and monitors the time and provides the necessary transportation enabling the patient to reach the appointment. Circulation is backed by LabCorp, Humana, Intermountain Healthcare Boston Children's Hospital, and BCBS North Carolina.
Ever since Circulation started providing its services, using every possible transportation method available, from private car owners, taxi's, fleets and now rideshare companies, they managed to reduce the number of no-show appointments from 25% to 8%. Circulation already works with Uber and now works with Lyft, so it now receives 100% rideshare coverage in the US.
In the past, Lyft worked with American Medical Response and CareMore Health System providing them with transportation solutions. However, Circulation's app connects seamlessly with Lyft's app which makes requesting a Lyft ride easy for both healthcare service providers as well as patients. Another advantage of using Lyft is the number of cars accessible at any given time and the fact that it now offers Lyft drivers more opportunities for rides. It also expands the influence of wheelchair accessible vehicles using Lyft.
According to a statement by VP Lyft Business, Gyre Renwick. "Transportation should be the last thing people need to worry about when getting to healthcare appointments. That's why partnering with Circulation, an organization that is centered around patient convenience and simplicity, is a natural fit with our mission to improve people's lives with the world's best transportation,"
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/circulation-lyft-appointments/
Circulation CEO and Co-Founder Robin Heffernan, Ph.D. stated "This partnership represents another step by Circulation towards improving convenience and satisfaction for healthcare travel. Outsourced call centers, multi-day advance scheduling, long wait times and no visibility are quickly becoming a thing of the past for healthcare logistics. Patients and providers expect the same service that they receive outside healthcare – namely convenience, quality, and reliability. Think Amazon and Netflix. A marketplace of high-quality options is critical to success,"
Circulation is expanding its national scope through its clients, such as Iora Health, which is now incorporating Circulation as their preferred transportation service for their patients and visitors. Iora Health has eight sites in the US and is expanding its services. Lyft and Circulation are partnering with more healthcare service providers who open the market to millions of rides a year. The scheduling platform fits in perfectly for Lyft and allows drivers the ability to schedule rides in advance, as well as take the customer to their appointment and return to take them back.