Ride Health, a medical transportation service, announced Thursday it would be providing a COVID-19 equipped transportation network to New York City.
The organization, in association with local elderly programs and community-based social wellness agencies, will provide transportation to COVID-19 patients in specially outfitted vehicles through a cloud-based mobile-first transportation coordination platform serving all five boroughs of the city, as well as the surrounding areas of Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Healthcare organizations managing the care of vulnerable populations, like the elderly and those with chronic health conditions, need to have a way to hire safe and reliable transportation for those patients. Maintaining safe access to chronic treatments helps to avoid an escalation in their condition.
The company’s 19 vehicles range from standard and wheelchair accessible vehicles to stretcher vans to ambulances. Through a strict vetting process, Ride Health ensures that the transportation providers meet Centers for Disease Control and Protection and state-specific guidelines for COVID-19 standards including the continuous use of personal protective equipment, sterilization of vehicles between every ride and daily driver health checks.
Ride Health’s network of transportation providers will help hospitals and other healthcare organizations transfer or discharge patients who have been exposed to the virus, while continuing to provide life-sustaining treatments for patients who chose to stay in their homes. Additionally, the service will be working with one of the city’s largest health plans to deliver meals to members who are homebound due to the pandemic.
“With social distancing and stay-at-home measures, as well as limitations on testing, common forms of transportation such as ride-hailing and public transit are no longer viable means of moving patients who have been exposed to or are positive for COVID-19,” said Imran Cronk, CEO and Founder of Ride Health. “As a New York-based company, we are honored to serve healthcare organizations and patients here in our backyard. We are also grateful to our medical transportation partners, whose drivers are serving on the frontlines to ensure access to care.”