Vais, S., Thomson, L., Williams, A., & Sobota, A. (2020). Rethinking Rideshares: A Transportation Assistance Pilot for Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Disease. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 31(3), 1457–1470. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2020.0105
Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): Transportation Assistance,
Intervention Description: Transportation barriers can limit health care access. This is particularly problematic for patients with chronic medical conditions such as sickle cell disease (SCD) who require frequent medical visits. This study assesses the efficacy of health care-directed rideshare services for overcoming these barriers at an urban pediatric specialty clinic. A pilot study was conducted at Boston Medical Center's Pediatric Hematology Clinic from January to April 2019. Patients whose caregivers reported transportation difficulties were offered rides. Primary outcomes were no-show rates and cost. Secondary outcomes included timeliness and patient experience.
Intervention Results: Implementation of rideshare services led to an 8.5% decrease in the no-show rate among patients with SCD. The intervention cost $2,175 over three months and generated $40,262 in charges. No adverse experiences were reported.
Conclusion: In an urban, underserved pediatric hematology clinic, the use of rideshare services is a feasible and relatively low-cost strategy for improving health care access.
Study Design: Program evaluation
Setting: Pediatric Hematology Clinic at Boston Medical Center (BMC), which is the largest safety-net hospital in New England
Population of Focus: Pediatric patients with sickle cell disease under 21 years of age who faced transportation challenges and were receiving care at the Pediatric Hematology Clinic at Boston Medical Center
Sample Size: 86 participants
Age Range: Pediatric patients under 21 years of age (Average Age=12.98; Std Dev: 5.81)
Access Abstract
