Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1501973
Illinois Medicine | 21 stuck in the hospital waiting for a ride from a family member or friend who might be working two or three jobs. As the researchers delved deeper, they uncovered a broader issue: It wasn't just getting home that was the problem; it was also returning to the hospital or clinic for follow-up care or getting to the pharmacy to pick up medications or to the grocery store to buy nutritious food. Transportation problems just made everything harder. And if patients were waiting at the hospital for a ride, their predicament could delay care for patients waiting to be admitted because beds were unnecessarily occupied. "A lack of reliable transportation kind of jams up the whole healthcare system," Krishnan points out. "So we designed, piloted and helped implement the Program for Non-Emergency Transportation (PRONTO), which employs a ride service to get patients back home in a timely manner. We're not the first hospital in the nation to do this, but we were the first in Chicago to greatly expand its use to meet the needs of various groups. PRONTO supports transitional care management by helping patients get to post-hospital clinic appointments (which reduces avoidable hospital admissions), provides an alternative option for clinic and hospital staff experiencing occasional transportation challenges, and enables research study participants to complete in-person study visits. "We are excited to support CHEMA because it brings the tools of modern science to help us more quickly understand how to support population health," he adds. "It's a much more sophisticated way to understand the multilevel determinants of health and the barriers to health." Jerry A. Krishnan, MD, PhD " " We do not do research for research's sake. Our research ultimately aims to improve the health and well- being of people living in Chicago, the state of Illinois and across the U.S. P H O T O : D I A N E S M U T N Y