The Impact of Rideshare Transportation Services on Appointment Adherence
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02955433 |
Recruitment Status :
Completed
First Posted : November 4, 2016
Last Update Posted : July 8, 2019
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This study is a prospective clinical trial designed to primarily test the impact of rideshare-based transportation services from a digital transportation network, Lyft, on reducing primary care clinic missed appointments--a composite outcome of no-shows and same day cancellations--for Medicaid patients. The study population consists of West Philadelphia residents who are established patients at two of the Penn Medicine Primary Care Practices within the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The study subjects are allocated into the intervention or control arm using a pseudorandomization approach - those receiving an appointment reminder on an even calendar day are in the intervention arm and odd calendar day calls are in the control arm.
Secondary outcomes include the time of arrival to the clinics relative to actual appointment time (both arms), prospective utilization of acute care settings (both arms), prospective utilization of primary care (both arms), and description of programmatic metrics in the intervention arm (travel time, misuse, and costs). The investigators will assess the patient experience after each ride using a telephone-based survey and in-depth interviews. All adults with established primary care at the Penn Medicine Clinics, who have Medicaid, and do not require wheelchair accessible rides will be eligible for the rideshare service. The investigators hypothesize that individuals offered a rideshare-based transportation service will have a decreased proportion of missed appointments and same day cancellations as those not offered the service.
Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
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Appointments and Schedules Social Determinants of Health Transportation Primary Health Care | Other: Rideshare-based transportation | Not Applicable |
Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Actual Enrollment : | 786 participants |
Allocation: | Non-Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Parallel Assignment |
Masking: | None (Open Label) |
Primary Purpose: | Health Services Research |
Actual Study Start Date : | October 2016 |
Actual Primary Completion Date : | April 2017 |
Actual Study Completion Date : | November 2017 |
Arm | Intervention/treatment |
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Experimental: Rideshare
The intervention arm will receive an appointment reminder and free transportation for one appointment to travel between the patient's home and primary care clinic using a rideshare-based transportation service.
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Other: Rideshare-based transportation
Other Names:
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No Intervention: Control
The control arm will receive an appointment reminder, but no free transportation offer.
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- The proportion of missed appointments (no-shows and same-day cancellation) in the intervention arm and the control arm [ Time Frame: Within 2 days of enrollment ]The missed appointment proportion is based on the one appointment for which patients were contacted to receive a free ride
- Arrival time to clinic relative to the scheduled time (both arms) [ Time Frame: Within 2 days of enrollment ]
- Post-intervention, utilization frequency of acute care settings (both arms) [ Time Frame: 7-days, 30-days, and 6 months post-appointment ]
- Post-intervention, utilization frequency of primary care (both arms) [ Time Frame: 7-days, 30-days, and 6 months post-appointment ]
- Post-intervention, frequency of missed primary care appointments (both arms) [ Time Frame: 30-days and 6-months post-appointment ]

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Ages Eligible for Study: | 18 Years and older (Adult, Older Adult) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | Yes |
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients insured by Medicaid
- Established primary care patient at the Penn Medicine Clinics
- Address in West Philadelphia zip code
Exclusion Criteria:
- Requiring wheelchair accessible transportation. We are unable to guarantee vehicles that will be able to accommodate these patients' physical needs.

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT02955433
United States, Pennsylvania | |
Penn Internal Medicine Primary Care Practice | |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19146 |
Responsible Party: | David Grande, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT02955433 |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
IRB-824715 |
First Posted: | November 4, 2016 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | July 8, 2019 |
Last Verified: | July 2019 |
Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement: | |
Plan to Share IPD: | No |
Rideshare Digital transportation network Missed appointment |