Participants know when the van is coming.
A participant who is not at the curb when the van arrives misses the ride, and the call-ahead your drivers were supposed to make is usually why. Bambi texts participants the day before and again when the driver is about 15 minutes away, in English or Spanish.
Why automated texts beat call-aheads.
Drivers should drive. The software can handle the reminders.
Day-before reminder
The night before, participants get a text with their pickup time, so the morning starts ready.
15 minutes out
When the driver is about 15 minutes away, a second text tells the participant to start heading to the door.
English or Spanish
Set a participant's primary language to Spanish and their texts arrive in Spanish.
No calls from the road
Drivers stop phoning participants while they drive, and dispatch stops chasing the calls that did not happen.
The call-ahead, automated.
Many participants need extra time to get to the front door or the curb, so PACE programs ask drivers to call ahead. Half the time the call does not happen, the participant is not ready, and the van has to move on.
Bambi's SMS trip reminders replace that call. The day before, the participant gets a reminder with the pickup time. When the driver is within about 15 minutes, they get another. At myPlace Health, missed call-aheads drove many of the grievances, and Wirter Mangrum says grievances have dropped quite a bit since the switch.
In the language your participants read.
Set a participant's primary language to Spanish on their profile, and their trip texts arrive in Spanish. In a program where most participants speak Spanish, that is the difference between a reminder that works and one that gets ignored.
myPlace Health had its own Spanish-speaking staff check the wording before rolling it out.
Caregivers can follow the van.
Add the Where's My Ride link and participants or caregivers can watch the van on a live map from the moment the driver is en route, in any phone browser. The live map closes when the trip ends.
Texts go only to participants with SMS allowed and a valid mobile number on file, and each message type has its own switch in your settings.
What mattered most to us wasn’t perfection, it was progress. Seeing consistent improvements and real support made us feel like we finally had a partner.
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Frequently Asked Questions: PACE Participant Ride Reminders
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