Epic Systems Corp., the Verona-based electronic health records software company, has partnered with San Francisco ride-sharing company Lyft on a platform that allows health system staff to arrange non-medical emergency transportation for patients using that patient's records.
Data on more than 250 million patients are on Epic medical records and the company's software is used by most of the major health care systems in the U.S. Meanwhile, Lyft says it has partnered with nine of the top 10 health systems in the U.S.
Lyft for Epic, the name of the platform, is designed to help patients get to their appointments on time while reducing missed appointments by up to 27%. The system pre-populates patient and appointment information in the ride request form. It also allows staff to schedule rides for patients as they are being discharged, creating less crowded waiting rooms and helping health systems improve the experience for patients, Lyft says.
Lyft and Epic plan to use the system to generate reports that will measure the impact of ride-share on a health system's spend and population health outcomes, "potentially even tracking patient segments to proactively identify patients that would benefit from a Lyft ride," the transportation company stated.
Epic is one of the largest privately held companies in Wisconsin with more than $3 billion in annual revenue and 10,000 employees.
