The Benefits of AI in the NEMT Industry
The term artificial intelligence or AI has changed. In the past, the idea of AI was utterly science fiction, but now it’s becoming a science fact. There’s a good chance that you’ve used AI sometime recently. Saying Hey Google, Siri, or Alexa means that you activated the AI in the device you’re using, and they respond back to you as they were programmed to do. It may have been something as simple as finding out the forecast or answering a trivia question. AI has an even broader application when it comes to how a business can use it. Several benefits can come from employing AI in the NEMT industry.
Make Smarter, Informed Decisions
One of the best benefits that come from AI is being able to make educated decisions. One of the features of artificial intelligence is that it can pick up on patterns in a business. So using AI for your NEMT industry means you can make the most informed decisions on moving your business forward. At first, it may seem that using AI with NEMT scheduling and dispatch software would only benefit large fleet businesses. Many small fleet NEMT services benefit from AI. By utilizing these tools from the beginning, they establish themselves a more extensive fleet.
Auto-Scheduling with Machine Learning and AI
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are valuable tools for many businesses, especially where discernible patterns are involved. For example, many doctor’s appointments, treatments, rehabilitation services, and other medically necessary trips are on particular schedules. You can use NEMT scheduling software to create an auto-scheduling feature that makes scheduling rides for regular visits easy. For instance, some rehabilitation appointments are set several times a week for several weeks as the patient goes through therapy. They keep this schedule to help with the healing process. Using AI-powered NEMT software, you can easily keep track of all of these appointments and have them scheduled in advance. Consider how long it would take a person to create this repeating several times a week appointment for several weeks. With auto-scheduling, this time is significantly cut down while allowing your staff to handle other patients.
Demand Prediction
Artificial intelligence can help you when it comes to staff schedules, along with when to perform maintenance on your fleet and other tasks. For example, demand prediction is where the AI can better identify times when your business is slower compared to when it’s busier. Often, the software can do this by analyzing all of the data that comes in over the weeks, months, and years that you use it. It can then extrapolate when you should have more staff on hand to handle the schedule and when things may be a little slower where you can focus on other aspects of your business. For instance, taking one vehicle off the road for regular maintenance on a quiet day is the best way to minimize the impact that a smaller fleet will have on your business.
Demand prediction is also a valuable tool when it comes to your individual patients. Some doctors run a much tighter ship than others when it comes to scheduling. You may find that some of your return trip patients are ready much quicker to be picked up than others. AI can evaluate the time between the drop-off and the return trip to help with coordinating the schedule. Demand prediction also helps you determine when to increase your staff, service area, or grow your business in other ways.
Route Optimization
It’s hard to argue with the benefit of route optimization from artificial intelligence. AI can evaluate the different locations and quickly come up with a route. Avoids problem spots in the road, all while helping get all the drivers where and where they need to be. It can create the most optimum route to help maximize the driver’s day and reduce wasted time on the road. Not only can it start your day off right with the best routes available for scheduled stops. It also quickly update the route when there are canceled or added trips in the day. It can often be harder to handle this type of disruption when AI is not involved. These changes in the working schedule would otherwise be lost time.
Autonomous Dispatch
In many cases, you may find that if you talk with your dispatch staff that most of the scheduling they handle are routine and relatively simple phone calls that take time but could be quickly done autonomously. You could be saving time and money when it comes to handling these more routine dispatch scheduling needs by using AI. NEMT dispatch software can make a huge difference in your daily schedule. Of course, there will always be situations where something more complex in play will require a human touch. By sending the more routine calls to AI, you free up your staff’s time to handle these more complicated calls. In addition, it helps to make their jobs more efficient while helping your clientele get scheduled as quickly as possible since phone lines aren’t tied up on the more basic scheduling needs.
Autonomous dispatch can not only make scheduling the initial call easier for more routine rides, but it can also improve the time it takes for a driver to be dispatched to pick up a patient after their appointment is over. One thing that never seems to change with healthcare is how quick appointments can often be much longer due to waiting times. It can be hard to keep track of when return trips need to be made for these patients. Autonomous dispatch through AI can help to streamline this process and work to reduce the amount of time that clients are left waiting for their return ride home.
Bottom Line
Artificial intelligence can be a powerful ally to have on your side to help your business grow and expand. Taking advantage of the AI’s knowledge and the way it views your business is a sure win. Your staff will enjoy the automation it provides, while your transportation clients will be pleased with your continuously improving service for scheduling and dispatch. When it comes to having the best NEMT dispatch software and NEMT scheduling software, you can’t go wrong with our product. Contact us today to learn more about how you can implement our cloud-based service into your NEMT business to capture the power of artificial intelligence.