How to Manage Growth and Expansion With NEMT Software

Non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) is a growing industry with a lot of scope for higher profits and cost-cutting. For those running an NEMT business, it is important to know the right time to grow your fleet. You must also take measures to improve operational efficiency and enhance schedule management. 

While you may have figured out how to market and grow your NEMT business, knowing how to manage business growth to maximize productivity is a whole other ballgame. 

If you want to optimize your daily operations and ensure that your fleet is more efficient and productive, it may be time to automate certain processes. This involves complex daily functions, such as scheduling, billing, routing, and dispatching. 

Let’s explore how you can make the most of NEMT software to expand and grow your business and set it up for success for years to come.

Contents:

• How NEMT Software Helps Streamline Operations
• How RouteGenie Helps You Optimize Your Business and Cut Costs
• Final Thoughts

How NEMT Software Helps Streamline Operations

NEMT providers help patients overcome barriers to healthcare access. By streamlining operations, your NEMT business can help even more people without increasing the workload for your fleet or employers. 

Efficient operations also ensure that you can make the most out of the time, effort, and money invested in your business as you boost revenue.

Here are some ways in which NEMT software can improve your operations and take your business to the next level:

Reduces Costs Incurred on Dispatchers 

Dispatching is a crucial initial step in the NEMT process and impacts everything that follows. An inefficient dispatching system has a domino effect that can lead to mismanagement or efficiency. 

Efficient routing, driver assignments, and finding opportunities for multi-loading can be impossible to achieve manually, and your business may incur losses due to this.

A dispatching tool can ensure that all these aspects are considered at the point of dispatch itself, thereby streamlining the rest of the process. Software can track routes in real-time and assign the most efficient route and most sensible driver and vehicle to the waiting patients. This simplifies the dispatching process and requires little to no human intervention. The software does all the work to ensure you don’t waste resources if the wrong driver or vehicle is dispatched or a circuitous route is selected.

For example, with manual dispatch, you may make a mistake and send over a vehicle that doesn’t have wheelchair security for a patient that requires it. This can result in delays as an alternative vehicle is sent over instead. You also run the risk of missing the appointment and losing a customer in the process, not to mention the cost of gas for two vehicles, two drivers on the hook, and other overhead expenses. 

Software with robust dispatching functionality will eliminate this risk and dispatch the right vehicles to the right patients. Each trip will be scheduled and organized seamlessly, ensuring maximum client satisfaction and little to no delays.

Improves On-Time Performance Through Route Optimization

Strict scheduling and on-time performances are critical for running a successful NEMT business. After all, medical procedures can be highly time-sensitive. A single missed appointment or delayed procedure due to improper scheduling can significantly impact the patient’s quality of life. 

Route optimization is therefore crucial to ensure that your trip schedules are designed to maintain punctuality and timeliness for all your passengers. This also includes real-time monitoring so that drivers, passengers, dispatchers, and other relevant parties are immediately alerted about changes to any trips.

Said changes can include multi-load opportunities that further maximize trips and improve efficiency while reducing costs. These factors can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, as they experience uninterrupted, convenient, and on-time transport services. 

Furthermore, NEMT driver management software’s route optimization reduces risks while driving—efficient routes avoid U-turns, left turns, and other potential accident-prone routes. The driver app software also tracks real-time traffic patterns to avoid areas with heavy traffic, construction, and other obstacles. This further ensures safety, security, and on-time performance.

Manages Driver and Vehicle Information to Enhance Safety

NEMT management software also includes a driver checklist where multiple people are responsible for the upkeep of a particular vehicle. This reduces the risk of accidents as there is always backup for maintaining and checking a vehicle to keep it running smoothly.

Drivers can accurately and promptly catch any issues by completing a pre and post trip checklist on a daily basis. Then, they can report the issue they have detected, which triggers seamless communication with the mechanic. 

This checklist system ensures that vehicles remain in optimum working condition and passengers don’t have to face unnecessary risks, discomfort, or delays that can be prevented with proper maintenance.

Minimizes No-Shows

NEMT software also provides automated scheduling and appointments and will notify patients of updates through phone calls, emails, or texts. Clients can easily reschedule appointments if needed, thereby reducing cancellations and no-shows. Drivers are immediately updated regarding schedule changes or cancellations, and patients can arrive at all appointments on time.

Automated calling system makes calls to passengers, so they don’t forget about their appointments and can cancel a trip if needed. 

Furthermore, NEMT passenger apps allow customers to know the exact location of their drivers, which makes pickup convenient and the overall trip smoother. Passengers will arrive at their pickup location on time, and replacement vehicles will immediately be allocated if an assigned driver is delayed. 

Overall, this reduces no-shows for drivers and passengers and maximizes resources by matching drivers’ and passengers’ locations and schedules.

How RouteGenie Helps You Optimize Your Business and Cut Costs

Improving operational efficiency is critical to reducing costs for NEMT businesses, and RouteGenie enables you to do just that. It is a scalable, flexible, and customizable solution that will meet all your specific needs. 

You can store all fleet data on the RouteGenie cloud to enhance the management of your operations and make them more effective and reliable. HIPAA compliant servers store all information and give you access from any device connected to internet, no need to download anything, just use your favorite browser. 

RouteGenie has all the essential tools for smooth management and operations for an NEMT fleet to function. It is beneficial for the following reasons:

• Reduces dispatcher costs by 50% with its dispatching and routing features that connect drivers and vehicles with customers. It also automatically optimizes routes with little to no human intervention needed.
• Enables NEMT providers to complete 25% more trips with the same number of vehicles in your fleet with efficient route optimization. It also increases the number of trips you can fit into your schedule by 25%.
• Reduces costs incurred on billing and dispatching labor by 50% by streamlining both processes to improve accuracy and efficiency.
• Reduces no-shows by up to 50% through automated calls and on-hold algorithm systems.

RouteGenie thus equips you with all the tools required to smoothly run a NEMT fleet while increasing customer satisfaction and improving efficiency. You can reduce costs, improve your services, and streamline all your processes through its effective and efficient features. 

You can focus on growing your business and expanding your services by reducing the burden of organization and management tasks through automation. This ensures accuracy and reduces the risk of errors involved when these tasks are performed manually.

Final Thoughts

Automation is highly beneficial for streamlining and optimizing processes in your NEMT business. Software such as RouteGenie ensures that your fleet functions smoothly and efficiently and your customers remain satisfied. It will also help you expand your business without having to add to your fleet, and you can serve more customers even with the same amount of resources.

NEMT software is a cost-effective solution to help you handle routing, billing, dispatching, and other processes, which also frees you up to focus on other elements of your business. With basic management functions automated and optimized as they are with RouteGenie’s modern software, you can divert your efforts toward growing and expanding your transport business as it continues to flourish. 

Book a RouteGenie demo today for a firsthand look at its top-notch functions.