On Wednesday morning at the NPA 2026 Annual Conference in Denver, Wirter Mangrum, Director of Transportation at myPlace Health, joined Bambi CEO Nirav Chheda for a session called "Smarter Rides, Better Outcomes." The room was full of PACE transportation directors, dispatchers and clinical leaders, and most of the hour went to their questions.
Here is what Wirter shared, what the room asked, and how each workflow runs in Bambi. If you want the full story first, read how myPlace Health cut transportation cost per member 65%.
1. It starts with a van and no driver
myPlace Health opened its first PACE center in February 2024 with about 10 participants, a contracted transportation vendor and an Excel spreadsheet. Then the vendor was shut down overnight.
"The next day, those two vans that were empty, I put myself in it and I drove for about a week until I can find another driver." Wirter Mangrum, myPlace Health
[VIDEO CLIP PLACEHOLDER: Wirter on driving the van himself, about 90 seconds]
Two and a half years later, the program serves more than 400 participants. Most of what changed in between was how transportation gets planned, dispatched and communicated.
2. Third software, and the one that stuck
Bambi was myPlace Health's third dispatch software. The first was simple but could not produce the reports leadership asked for. The second had the reports but, in Wirter's words, needed an advanced degree to route a normal day, so new dispatchers took weeks to get up to speed.
"Normally it would take them about two months to learn the software. It took them less than two weeks. That's how easy it was." Wirter Mangrum, myPlace Health
[VIDEO CLIP PLACEHOLDER: Wirter on three dispatch software platforms and the two-week ramp, about 60 seconds]
The lesson for any PACE program evaluating software: ease of use is not a nice-to-have. It decides how fast you can hire, train and cover a dispatch desk when someone is out. Bambi includes guided setup and onboarding and a library of how-to videos, and myPlace's team trained in about three days.
3. A bigger fleet, the same dispatch team
Early in the session, Nirav asked the room to raise a hand if they did not struggle with inefficient routes. One person did. myPlace Health's answer was to stop routing by hand.
"I have not added one dispatcher or coordinator to my team." Wirter Mangrum, myPlace Health
[VIDEO CLIP PLACEHOLDER: Wirter on 6,000 trips a month with the same dispatch team, about 35 seconds]
Since January, myPlace grew from 14 to 26 vans and now runs about 6,000 trips a month with two dispatchers and a supervisor. Run Bambi Run builds routes across the whole fleet in one click, filling seats and cutting miles, which matters even more for a fleet that is about 90% electric.
4. Build day center routes once a month
Most PACE trips are recurring day center rides, and the room had a lot of questions about them. myPlace's approach: optimize once, then lock it in.
"She optimized it with Bambi first and then locked in the templates based on the suggestions from Bambi." Wirter Mangrum, describing how his supervisor built the day center routes
The routes go out a month at a time. Because the routes are saved, a husband and wife who attend together stay on the same van every day, which answered one attendee's frustration with a current system that keeps splitting a couple across two vehicles. In Bambi, Trip Subscriptions create the recurring trips and route templates assign them to the right driver in the right order.
5. Give specialist appointments their own drivers
Day center runs are naturally efficient: one van, several participants, one destination. Specialist appointments are not. Wirter watches cost per trip closely, and a driver who only completes four trips a day breaks the math.
So about a month ago, myPlace moved a few drivers to specialist appointments only and runs Run Bambi Run on that work. It finds participants headed to the same area at similar times, then multi-loads them where it fits.
6. Let departments request rides themselves
Clinic, nursing and center staff at myPlace used to submit transportation requests through Smartsheet forms that dispatch re-keyed by hand. When Nirav asked who in the room had felt that pain, a good share of hands went up.
myPlace waited five to six months to turn on Bambi's Facility Portal after a bad experience with another vendor's version.
"And then when we turned it on, life-changing." Wirter Mangrum, myPlace Health
Now departments submit requests directly, dispatch accepts or rejects them, and staff can see whether a participant already has a ride before asking for one. Duplicate requests have largely stopped, and so have the "is she on her way?" calls to dispatch.
"This is not rocket science. Someone needs to put in a ride. Everybody needs to have real-time visibility into that correct information. Implementing it well, that is the key." Nirav Chheda, Bambi
7. Tell participants when the van is coming
Missed call-ahead phone calls used to drive a large share of myPlace's grievances. Participants need time to get to the curb, and drivers should not be making calls while they drive. Now Bambi sends a text reminder the day before with the pickup time, van number and driver name, and another when the driver is 15 minutes out.
One attendee raised a familiar problem: automated Spanish that participants do not recognize as their Spanish. myPlace had its own native Spanish-speaking staff review and adjust the wording. Wirter says grievances have come down quite a bit since the switch.
8. The number everyone waited for
Nirav opened the session by asking the room to guess how much myPlace had reduced its transportation cost per member per month. Wirter saved the answer for the end.
"I couldn't give the numbers. My president wouldn't let me give the numbers. But I can give a percentage." Wirter Mangrum, myPlace Health
[VIDEO CLIP PLACEHOLDER: the 65% reveal, about 70 seconds]
It was 65%, measured from January to September 2026, and Wirter says it is still trending down. Cost per trip fell about 68%. Figures are reported by myPlace Health; read the full customer story for the details.
More questions from the room
Do drivers have to use the Bambi driver app?
Yes. The Bambi driver app is what syncs in real time with dispatch. Drivers tap through each trip status, so dispatch and staff can see which participant is on which van. Wirter says his drivers adopted it quickly.
How does the software know what each van can carry?
You set each vehicle's seats and wheelchair positions once. Scheduling then only puts trips on a vehicle that can actually take them.
What about a pickup the driver cannot physically reach in time?
Run Bambi Run will not put back-to-back pickups on a driver who cannot physically make both. The second trip goes to another driver or stays unassigned for dispatch to handle.
See it in person
Next year's NPA Annual Conference is in Los Angeles, about five minutes from myPlace Health. In the meantime, Wirter says he is always open to questions from other programs. If you want to see how these workflows would run on your own routes, book a demo or visit our PACE programs page.
