Patient transport software is crucial for any medical service which requires a patient to be picked up or dropped off for medical appointments. Anyone running a patient transport service will benefit from using patient transport dispatch software built into a fully integrated patient transport platform. The software will assist you in getting your passengers to appointments quickly and efficiently and be able to manage any changes in schedules, appointments or if critical events happen during the journey and sometimes even before or after the trip itself. Having a patient transport service which is able to respond quickly to patient requirements is vital today. Given the increased demands on medical services, you need to be able to respond swiftly without making mistakes. This might be from hospitals, GP surgeries, daycare and more. Without a patient transport system, you will lose control over which patients need to attend which appointments and you need to ensure you get them there on time and safely – preferably with a little time to spare!
What Can Patient Transport Software Really Do?
If you have never used transport software before, you might be thinking what can patient transport software do for your patient transport service? Well, with Road XS, for example, you can plan your routes in advance, optimise pickup times, save fuel costs, allocate vehicles and drivers accordingly, accommodate mobility aids, automate your booking workflow and more! All within an integrated, single platform.
In using Road XS patient transport software capabilities, you will be able to manage patient transport jobs, manage vehicle allocation, tracking, real-time reporting and more. By using a software package, you will also be able to have a complete platform to manage your operations, be it on-site, at the office or securely from home.
Road XS provides not just the platform, but a workflow that can raise standards and speed of job entry. It has also been proven to improve teamwork and with ongoing improvements improves over time.
Whether you use Road XS for non-emergency patient transport services or high-dependency patient transport, Road XS can be configured to your needs.
The data in Road XS is accessible in real-time which means that your team and services can respond in an instant by reallocating a vehicle or responding to any escalation. The inbuilt driver portal ensures your staff and crew confirm their location on pickup and drop off and with What3Words integration, ensures that your crew’s location is known throughout the job.
Road XS also assists with tracking patients and personnel for COVID-19 track and trace. We can show where the person has been and which patient was being transported.
What is Patient Transport Software?
Using patient transport dispatch software enables your team to work collaboratively enabling patients to get to their healthcare appointments or enabling crews to get to emergencies quickly and efficiently. The software ensures that your team follow defined, consistent workflows and processes to streamline the job at hand. A modern software solution such as Road XS, provides you with the ability to control operational costs, maintain record keeping and quickly book staff and vehicles into jobs.
Here’re some features which you need when you’re considering patient transport software:
The Software Must Be Flexible
Life happens, and things can change at a moment’s notice, especially in the medical world. This means you need to be able to respond accordingly and accurately. This means you need flexible software which can grow and adapt with you at a moment’s notice. You will no doubt be operating in a team and potentially you could be working in different geographical location this means your team need to be on the same page no matter where they are.
Flexible Fee Structure
It’s good to know how much you’d be paying for using your software, but the problem is, that it means you very often overpay for software that you might not use that much. For example, you pay thousands of pounds for some really clever routing software but you’re really only operating a non-emergency transport service once a week. That’s why you need something which is scalable and covers any eventuality for your journey numbers. You also want to make sure that you don’t get locked in. That you can export your patient data and switch platforms. Many software companies get stuck in the mud and focus on keeping contracts than improving their software as the technology improves. In not moving forwards with technology, you can be left behind at a disadvantage.
Pinpoint Locations
In order to increase your accuracy, you need to pinpoint your locations. The reason for this is you might not arrive at someone’s house but an entrance or side entrance. This means your team needs to know exactly where to stop and park their vehicle. You need to precisely pinpoint that location for greater accuracy. There’s no point just estimating on a map where you might end up, you need precision (to assist with getting them to the right drop off point).
Mobility Aid Management
You need to get to know your patients and passengers. They all have unique needs and there’s no better example of this than mobility aids. It’s not good placing someone in a small utility vehicle when they really need greater space and freedom to handle their mobility aids. The thing is, you don’t have time to know and ask this every time so you need to build a profile on your passengers and only allocate them to vehicles that suit their needs.
GPS Tracking
GPS tracking increases your safety and vehicle utilisation. It’s not just an add-on. Equally, you don’t want to be paying hundreds of pounds extra a month to add trackers You need software that includes GPS in its offerings. This provides real value to all services that manage patient transport and is a key factor when choosing which patient transport software is right for you. With Road XS you also get increased security for example with real-time last known locations through our What3Words integration.
Driver Stop Management
Sometimes your drivers need a break and this needs planning in your route management. Very often systems can become too prescriptive (pardon the pun!). They don’t take into account emotional needs. Your drivers are human, not robots so the breaks for fuel and coffee need factoring in and you need a fluid route manager to handle all of those steps so you know where your vehicles are and what status the driver is at. All of this needs to be considered in the running of your patient transport service.
Ongoing Updates and Support
Your patient transport services will change over time, so it’s important that your transport software adopts with you. This means your best possible option is a software as a service option (SaaS). This will ensure you automatically obtain software updates and don’t have to worry about the back end hardware, it’s all included for you.
Driver Portal
Whilst not common inpatient transport software, your driver portal is the missing key in the puzzle. This ensures that every time you update a journey or re-allocate a driver based on a cancellation or change of requirement, your journeys and their updates are automatically communicated to your drivers. A driver portal saves your admin team time and opens you up to operate a demand-responsive transport service that maximizes your resources to the full.
Modern, Clean Design
You need your software to be easy to use and for all workflows to make logical sense. Software design extends well beyond the way it looks, it also goes deeper into your processes to raise your operating standards. A modern design and approach open you up to the biggest chance of success in getting the software adopted by your team. The better the software looks and the smoother it operates the happier and more fun you’ll have!
Route Optimisation
Route optimisation is often overlooked when it comes to patient transport software. This is because the primary focus is getting your passengers to appointments safely, but in optimising the routes, when you involve more than one passenger on a trip, it’s important to save operational costs. This is what route optimisation brings you. With route optimisation, you save fuel and time and ensure.
Must Be Secure
Security must be a priority with your patient transport software. With the introduction of the GDPR in May 2018, you must ensure you meet compliance as a bare minimum when meeting your data security requirements. You must also ensure two-factor authentication to instil the highest levels of security right from the start.
Timely Notifications
With the speed at which your services will operate, it’s important you and your team stay on top of the most important tasks. This means you need to know your next most important action. This will ensure you meet your targets and deliver a streamlined service. Your patient transport software should keep you organised and automate your next actions so you can concentrate on more important tasks within your transport services.
Fleet Management
If you operate more than one vehicle then you must optimise your fleet to its full potential. This includes optimising your routes and pickups so that you are not wasting time on trips when your vehicles could be better utilized. By optimising your pickup order you ensure that everyone gets picked up in a ‘flow’ state rather than zigzagging back and forth. The more fluid your routes the more streamlined your patient transport service will be. You’d be amazed how many more trips you can fit in when you optimise your routes.
Invoicing
Whilst you may not directly charge with your services, it’s important that you keep on top of any invoicing. In doing so this means you can keep an eye on cash flow and ensure if you do invoices that they are sent and paid in a timely manner. The most ideal solution is to also take online payments so you are not having to handle cash payments which take time to process.
