Vendor Spotlight: Uber Health
Pink Ribbon Girls is proud to partner with Uber Health to provide rides to treatment in the St. Louis region and the Bay Area. PRG STL was the first region of Pink Ribbon Girls to utilize Uber Health for the rides to treatment component of our program starting with a $10,000 grant from Uber Health for the St. Louis region in 2018. Uber Health is a HIPAA-compliant technology solution that leverages the ride-hailing power of the Uber platform. The web-based dashboard allows PRG to request, manage, and pay for rides for others, at scale. Rides are from door-to-door so no client has to wait at a bus stop for extended periods in the doctor’s office for their ride. Our Pink Ribbon Girls staff provides tech support to our clients and walks them through any issues that may occur with technology, smartphones, ride redemption, etc.
Outside of the pandemic, as many as 30% of all patients skip doctor appointments, citing transportation as a key reason, according to a report by SCI Solutions. In 2019, Pink Ribbon Girls implemented Transportation Insecurity screening questions into our client intake process and found that 25% or one-quarter of our clients do not have consistent transportation available to get them to and from potentially life-saving doctor's appointments.
PRG, like our hospital partners, is seeing an influx of clients in 2021 due to their inability to obtain regular cancer screenings during the pandemic. Our clients, many of whom are elderly, are at high risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus due to low immunity making our door-to-door ride program essential. Uber Health is compliant with the CDC and requires face masks for everyone riding or driving with Uber. In addition, Uber provides cleaning supplies to drivers and hand sanitizer. Other non-profit organizations had to stop serving clients with programs similar to ours during the pandemic but because of our relationship with Uber Health...we never stopped. We are currently serving more clients than ever. Uber Health gave PRG another grant in 2020 for $8,500 to provide rides to clients in both the St. Louis region and the Bay Area.
Offering access to health care with free rides to treatment is a simple way to improve the lives of our clients, including women like Sharon: “I was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer and was referred to PRG through my hospital. I utilized the transportation and I felt very safe and secure during my rides. PRG’s transportation meant I did not have to worry about how I was going to make my appointments. If I could describe PRG in one word it would be: Dependable”