Offering transportation services to economically disadvantaged patients at a family health center: a case study

Jia Guo, Jonathan F. Bard, Douglas J. Morrice, Carlos R. Jaén, Ramin Poursani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

It has been established that high no-show rates of publicly supported health systems in economically depressed areas are largely due to a lack of inexpensive, reliable transportation. The purpose of this paper is to determine the financial feasibility of offering transportation and investigate the net cost savings by reducing no-show rates. The approach starts with a data analysis on 636 patients at the Family Health Center (FHC) in San Antonio, Texas, followed by logistic regression to determine the impact of various transportation factors on cancellations/no-shows and late arrivals. We then investigate the costs savings that could be realised by reducing the no-show rate from 24.3% by up to 60%. Finally, we analyse the expenses that would be incurred should the FHC provide transportation. The full analysis indicates a cost reduction of more than $15,000 per month can be achieved when the no-show rate is reduced by 25% down to 18.2%.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)251-275
Number of pages25
JournalHealth Systems
Volume11
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Keywords

  • no-shows
  • outpatient clinic
  • probability of cancellation
  • transportation burden
  • vehicle routing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems
  • Health Policy
  • Health Informatics
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Management Science and Operations Research

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Offering transportation services to economically disadvantaged patients at a family health center: a case study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this