Ambulnz’s Software Facilitates Timely Medical Transportion During COVID-19 Pandemic

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Ambulnz’s Software Facilitates Timely Medical Transportion During COVID-19 Pandemic

Ambulnz’s Software Facilitates Timely Medical Transportion During COVID-19 Pandemic
Ambulnz is a non-emergency on-demand ambulance provider that is working to improve on traditional Medical transportation through the implementation and integration of various technologies. The firm describes itself as a “software-enabled Medical transportation company”.

When a patient needs to be moved to a new facility for treatment out of a hospital, out-patient treatment clinic, doctor, dialysis, or chemo center, a pickup can be scheduled through the Ambulnz app.

The app can help expedite the patient transfer process by allowing protected patient information to be uploaded and moved with the patient. The system then provides real time information on the status of the non-emergency vehicles, similar to how Lyft and Uber apps show their riders where they, so that Medical professionals can track their patients.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, Ambulnz services come in a Timely manner, and they work on transporting patients between quarantine and other clinical care facilities. The fleet of transportation vehicles coordinated by Ambulnz are now in the communities of New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, California, as well as the United Kingdom.

Here are the precautions Ambulnz, along with many other ambulance providers, are taking in the wake of the current coronavirus epidemic: To minimize exposure and cross-contamination of COVID-19, Ambulnz is encapsulating patient compartments, which limits a patient’s contact with EMT service staff. Special vehicles have been identified within the fleet, which will only be used to transport patients who might have been exposed to the virus. Ambulnz has equipped all vehicles and EMTs with Body Substance Isolation (BSI) equipment as well as appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to carry out these services in a safe manner for everyone.

All patients receive an enhanced dispatch intake questionnaire to help identify patients who may be at-risk or may have been exposed, and which may exhibit symptoms of COVID-19. Ambulnz EMTs ensure that each patient wears a surgical mask During transport, and have thorough training on proper PPE usage and vehicle decontamination protocols, including the CDC-mandated thirty minute post-decontamination waiting period for each vehicle.

We had a chance to speak with Ben Sherman, VP of Business Development at Ambulnz, to find out

AliceFerng, Medgadget: Tell me about yourselfand how you got involved with Ambulnz. Were you one of the co-founders?


BenSherman, VP of Business Development at Ambulnz: I have been with thecompany for 3 years; joining March 2017 from UBS. I spent the 9 years prior asHead of the European Equity Distribution into the United States.

Mymotivation was based on seeing a company that was trying to provide benefits toall stakeholders. I liked the idea of building and scaling a company with thoseintentions. The whole ambulance/medical transport market is a broken model. Allstakeholders are dissatisfied. EMT’s are paid low / minimum wage and havelittle opportunity for advancement. Ambulnz offers incentives for productivityand patient care to ensure our EMTs can make a good living, provide for theirfamilies, and not need to work a second job.

It’snot just employee satisfaction that I was drawn to. It was making a betterproduct for all stakeholders involved in the Medical transportation process.

Hospitalshave challenges with patient flow due to unreliable transportation providers(TP) and the burden of calling TPs to arrange transport. In the past, nursesand other key people were stuck on their phones trying to get ambulances. Eachpickup involves hundreds of data points that need to be relayed and communicated,and the current process of transmitting that info by one person reading toanother is very inefficient and can take over 20 minutes. Staff frequently booktwo ambulances because they don’t know if someone will show up and have no wayto track a transport en-route. Digitizing the process really helps with patientflow and transparency. This helps hospitals improve operations and throughput.It is very important to me that Ambulnz was setting out to solve theseincredibly complex problems.

Andfinally, the most important stakeholder, patients. The traditional method ofpatient pickup entailed an ambulance coming to your front door with bright redflashing lights. They pick up patients with two EMTs in paramilitary uniforms. We felt this increases patient anxiety. So ourvehicles are designed with soft blue colors, and our EMT’s are dressed in professional,non-militaristic uniforms that are meant to comfort instead of intimidate.

It’snot often you find a business that is looking to tackle all these issues insuch a huge and broken industry.

Ouraim is to consolidate the market and provide better service to hospitals, theirpatients, and to provide a better lifestyle for EMTs and all the otherprofessionals working for us.

Medgadget: Tellme more about Ambulnz – when was the company started? What were some challengesgetting it started initially?

Mr.Sherman:The actual formation was the end of 2015 and we ran the first transports at thebeginning of 2016. The company started with a small fleet, about five ambulances.The co-founders spent a year and a half prior to forming the companyresearching the industry and understanding it. It also helped that one of theco-founders was a volunteer paramedic for 20 years and is very experienced inthe technology space.

Ambulnzhas rapidly expanded since then – New York, Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, NewJersey, Tennessee and in the UK. California is probably the most challengingmarket in U.S. for a variety of reasons. The heavily regulated industrypossesses laws and reforms that extend from a State level down to a County and Citylevel. To perform transports, you have to get a variety of credentials andlicenses for EMTs and vehicles in each and every municipality. It is achallenge, and not a particularly efficient environment from anyone’sstandpoint. On top of the challenges in obtaining licenses, labor laws inCalifornia are very challenging and not designed for a distributed workforce.

Anotherchallenge is that the industry is quite a cynical one. We come in and tellparamedics and EMTs that we give them the opportunity to earn more and theydon’t believe us! It literally takes proof of pay slips from other employees togain trust.

Thereis an enormous amount of paperwork in every transport. There are over 500 datapoints per transport and when you are doing 1000+ transports/day that’s a lotof data! To make the situation more precarious, the processes had yet to beautomated so we were starting from scratch. This industry still operates by faxand telephone, and we are trying to improve the quality of our service as wellas the quality of the industry as a whole by investing in technology.

Other big challenges can be summed up in dealings with the US healthcare system. US Healthcare is a very fragmented, politicized, bureaucratic system that is designed by the healthcare insurance industry in order not to pay bills.


Medgadget:Which patient and caregiver populations are able to use yourservice? (e.g., Is the service limited to certain populations? Or are youtargeting a specific population?)

Mr. Sherman: One thing we try to doas a company is ensure we provide the appropriate level oftransportation for patients. If I were representing a small ambulance companyand receive a call to pick someone up for a broken leg, if we go to pick thatperson up for transportation and they appear to be jumping around without anissue, Ambulnz would not transport this person by ambulance unless theindividual wanted to pay themselves. We would still provide service, but byalternative means – via wheelchair or sedan. This is lower cost for insuranceproviders and enables us to use our higher acuity resources where they areneeded most. Many other companies will simply pick the patient up and bill for afull ambulance transport without a prior assessment of the situation.

Weare dedicated to providing the appropriate level of service for individualizedneed. Our base level is a car Partnership with Uber where we have the abilityto send a sedan to perform curb to curb work. The next level is door to door,which we provide with our dedicated fleet of Ambulette vehicles.

ForAmbulance transport, we have three distinct verticals. The most basic is BLS orBasic Life Support. The patient’s condition here is not too critical so therewill be two EMTs present without a paramedic. ALS, or Advanced Life Support isa step up from BLS and requires a paramedic as well as an EMT on staff. CCT orCritical Care Transportation typically comes replete with a nurse orrespiratory therapist, a paramedic and an EMT. In this case, the patient’sneeds are highly specialized in terms of staffing and equipment, and we arecapable of providing both. When it comes to transportation, we have everythingoutside of a helicopter (but can get one of those if needed)!

Ambulnzis also a leader in event Medical care. All the EMTs for Barclays Stadium, CitiField, Javitz Center, Jones Beach, and Formula E events are covered by Ambulnz.We provide vehicles and a staffed Medical tent with nurses and physicians tolook after and treat patients on the site. This helps ensure only the mostcritical cases are taken to hospital – freeing up time, cost and resource forthose who need it most.

Inthe United States and the United Kingdom, we also provide mental healthtransportation for which there are varying degrees of severity. Patients thatare either threatening to themselves or others need transport as well. This isalmost always done via ambulance with a minimum of two people on board toensure that no one gets harmed.

Medgadget: How doyou staff your transport to deal with patients who have special Medical devicesor life assist equipment (e.g., air tanks, IVs, etc.)? Do you have specialtraining that is required?

Mr.Sherman:Yes. Even the most basic BLS transport would include two EMTs who are trainedto evaluate and operate the majority of Medical devices that patients need. Inthe event that a patient uses a specific device that is less common, patientsmay inform us and we will make sure that we have the appropriate level ofservice staff to handle their individual requirements. Our technology extends beyondmedical devices. For example, women who have been in a vulnerable position maynot feel comfortable around a group of men. We can make the properaccommodations by sending an all-female crew. There are very few occasionswhere we cannot service the patient’s needs. If someone is on life support viaa balloon pump, we can accommodate that as well; whatever the need, we have theright staff and equipment to handle it.

Wepartner with hospital networks and groups. If there was ever something weneeded from them, they would be more than happy to help us so we can help thepatient.

Medgadget:Please elaborate on “how this technology can ensure bettersafety and patient care.”

Mr.Sherman:Our vehicles have speed monitoring systems and are barred from going above 70mph. Additionally, there are cameras set up and running twenty four hours a dayin order to monitor things like braking too heavily, failing to wear a seatbeltor cornering too fast. The technology also detects if the driver picks up acellphone, which would create an immediate red flag. Drivers who are cited anddo not adhere to remedial processes are sanctioned. This ultimately fosters aculture where safe driving comes to the forefront of our staff’s attention.EMTs want to work for us and stay with us as they care about their job andbecause of that, are acting more carefully. Activemonitoring of the vehicle, consistent evaluation, safety training.

Recordsare typically kept by filling out a patient care report (PCR) as well as aPhysician’s Certification Statement (PCS). Typically, to obtain a PCS, EMTsarrives at the hospital and receive a PCS from a doctor. The EMTs will oftenhave to find someone to sign it and then retain it for their records. Thiscreates unnecessary delays and inconvenience

Throughour integration with Electronic Health Record systems, we can have PCS’scompleted electronically and much more quickly which ultimately frees up timefor EMTs and doctors. This system eliminates illegible handwriting andinaccurate information; saving time and improving accuracy which is crucialwhen dealing with health records. The level of credibility and reliability ofour data is much higher when compared to conventional methods.

Oftenwhen hospitals discharge patients, they are unaware of what happens on the wayhome. Did the patient get sick? We can send a PCR back to the hospital in orderfor hospital staff to gain an element of closure and stay informed as to whathappened. This method, via the integration of our technology, gives hospitalstaff the confidence that the patient made it home safely.

Medgadget: Howdoes Ambulnz plan to grow and scale up? What is the plan with the recent Uberpartnership?

Mr.Sherman:Weplan to grow and scale up both organically and inorganically. We are happy toenter market greenfield with partners (good example is Colorado – launched fromscratch no existing infrastructure), Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Texasinvolved a small local acquisition in Kingsville. From here we intend to growacross that State both through acquisition and greenfield expansion. In the UKwe acquired a single site and now operate from six locations. In Tennessee wepartnered with HCA and operate with them as well.

Goingforward, we have an exciting partnership with Fresenius, the largestprovider of kidney dialysis in the US. Each dialysis patient needs 3 treatmentsa week (6 transports), so we want to make sure they get reliable transportationto their treatments and receive the excellent level of care that Freseniusprovides. We will continue to roll-out across the US with Fresenius. They arean ideal partner as they share our passion for patient care and innovating tofind efficiency.

Medgadget:Describe some technological challenges Ambulnz has had toovercome – have there been times when you have been unable to pick up ortransport a client?

Mr.Sherman:Medical transport by its very nature is at the cross section of logistics andhealthcare, two very complex industries. Adding technology increases thecomplexity initially, but ultimately helps streamline the processes and createa more efficient healthcare system.

Thereal world is not a spreadsheet or a computer program; traffic is unpredictableand vehicles break down. We schedule everything to know where, when and whyeach vehicle will be at all times. We have optimized that flow to be moreefficient which in turn helps the company, EMTs and patients. Although, we areconstantly learning. If you’re picking someone up from a hospital ward theymight be located past security and up an elevator. Historically companies relyon general knowledge to estimate the time taken – Ambulnz uses AI and complexalgorithms to estimate the time it will take to transport a patient. We track allpoints of data and pinpoint why the trip took the time it did. We can thenincorporate that data and information into our future planning so that thingswill continue to run more and more smoothly.

Allour vehicles are tracked and personnel ability and license are recorded. Thesystem knows what license and crew is the most appropriate for any giventransport.

Healthcarein the US is very complex due to billing and insurance. We use technology tomonitor and optimize our processes to ensure proper care appropriate level oftreatment and detailed data for claims management. Through our integrationswith Electronic Health Records we are also able to gather accurate and detailedbilling information – a key struggle for the industry.

Thisintegration also enables our system to ‘talk’ to bed management programs. If wepicked someone up from bed 28, our technology can send a janitorial team tomake up bed 28 and get ready for the next patient.

There have been instances where we can’t pick up a patient. Unfortunately, no one can be 100% all of the time although we use our technology and systems to adapt and to strive for 100%. We won’t be satisfied until we get there! To help carry forward our mission, we have incredible partners that share our vision – UC Health, Jefferson Health System, Fresenius, Uber… and more to come!


Link: Ambulnz homepage…

Related: Partnership with Uber

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