Author: Wendy

Ethnography Summary- Uber Immersion

Joe Krause and Alex Charron took an Uber to and from the Saint Joseph Regional Medical center in order to estimate ride costs and duration, as well as talk to the drivers to gain their perspective on current transportation problems. The team spoke with 2 different drivers who asked to remain anonymous. The team combined the information from both drivers into 1 summary because both drivers had similar responses to our questions.

Date: 3/3/17

Type: Immersion

Location: From Notre Dame to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center and back

Team participants:  Joe Krause and Alex Charron

 

User Characteristics: “Uber Driver”

• Drives clients to a specific location using an App-driven service
• Deals with people who have the App regardless of their demographics or background

 

Memorable Quotes:

• “Older people who cannot drive are starting to use Uber more, which I think is great because they are less dependent on public transportation or family and friends.”
• “It does not always make sense for me to drive during the day since I get way more money when I drive at night.”
• “I usually just drive whenever I have free time and I think that is the case for most drivers.”

 

Top 3 Learnings:

• Older people who cannot drive are beginning to use Uber as a main form of transportation to get anywhere ranging from doctors appointments to grocery stores.
• Before 8pm, most people use Uber to get somewhere that they need to go such as the dry cleaner or grocery store. After 8pm, most people use Uber to go to dinner or a bar.
• Surge charges drastically increase the price of an Uber.

 

Key insights:

• There are a lot more Uber drivers working at night because they make a lot more money working at night compared to working during the day. This is simply because more people use Uber at night.
• Elderly people are sometimes skeptical of using Uber, but after a few times they usually become comfortable with the service and then they will tell their friends and family about it.
• People that use Uber during the day usually do not have a car or access to a car.
• It is very common during the day for drivers to take customers to a medical appointment or urgent care.

 

Our Data:

• The trip from campus to the medical center took 11 minutes and it costed $13.51.
• The trip from the medical center to campus took 12 minutes and it costed $7.28.
  • The difference in price was due to a surge charge from Uber.
  • Surge charges can be so high at times that it does not make sense financially to use Uber instead of another option such as a cab.

Other Findings:

• The first car we were in was a mid-size svu and it was very comfortable/ spacious. 
  • The driver has picked up people in wheelchairs and people with oxygen tanks, although it is very rare for this to occur.
• The second car was a small sedan and it was not spacious. The driver had both front seats far back, which gave us very little leg room.
  • The driver has never picked up anyone with a wheelchair or oxygen tank. He was unsure if he would be able to since his car is so small.

***Attached below are photos from our Uber Immersion.

Uber Immersion Photos

Joe, accompanied by Alex, visited the office of Volunteer Services at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center (Hospital) in order to determine what roles the volunteers play in terms of transportation for patients. The team members spoke with Cari Wilson, Director of Volunteer Services, as well as Robert, one of the daily volunteers. In talking with Cari, the team discovered that there are multiple resources for patients to use in order to get to the center, but some of the time they simply are not aware of those services. For instance, a patient may not be aware that the Transpo bus runs every hour to and from the hospital. Rob, who works at the front of the building welcoming people, informed the team that it is very rare for a patient to come to the hospital and then face a transportation problem leaving the hospital. This is because, in most cases, patients will not come to the center without planning their travels beforehand. The ethnographic summary of the interviews is attached below, along with a few pictures pertaining to the interviews.

Ethnography-Volunteer Services

Ethnography Summary- Ranae: Receptionist at Family Medical Center inside Saint Joseph’s Hospital

Team members Joe Krause and Alex Charron interviewed receptionist Ranae in order to determine how often appointments are missed and cancelled with the Family Medical Center of SJHS .

Date: 3/4/17

Type: Interview

Location: Family Medical Center within Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Mishawaka, IN.

Team participants:  Led by Joe Krause and accompanied by Alex Charron

User Characteristics: “Veteran Receptionist for the Family Medical Center”

• 10+ years handling patient appointments, cancellations, and no-shows
• Helps register patients who have appointments
• Makes reminder calls to ensure that people are aware of their appointment

Memorable Quote- “The transportation services provided through Medicaid are inefficient and often result in a patient being so late that they completely miss their appointment.”

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Access to transportation in order to get to a medical appointment is a much bigger problem than people think.
2. Medicaid will pay for transportation to appointments, but they require a 72 hour notice and the patient must use specific approved cab companies. These cab companies often show up late, causing a patient to be late to an appointment.
3. There are a lot more cancellations than no-shows because a patient may lose complete access to the office if they miss a few appointments with no advanced notice. However, no-shows are unproportionally due to lack of transportation.

Key insight- Medicaid will cover the costs to get to and from an appointment, but most of the time cab services are late which cause patients to also be late. The family medical center has a policy that if a patient comes more than 15 minutes late, then their appointment will be cancelled automatically. Furthermore, not all patients are aware that medicaid will cover transportation expenses, so they look for alternative ways of getting to appointments that do not always work.

Activities:

• Met Alex on campus and took uber to the hospital.
• Spoke with various employees and patients
• Took referrals in order to gain the perspective of multiple stakeholders
• Left the hospital

Environment:

• Saint Joseph’s Hospital
• Family Medical Office

Excellent work team!  You have two expert interviews complete.  For other interviews, please conduct the interview in context if possible.  It would be helpful to have the expert show you how they find information they need or complete certain tasks.  Or to show you how they believe patients/users complete certain tasks.  When in context the AEIOU framework you started to use to capture your Starbucks interview will make a lot more sense.  This also would give you meaningful photos.  I like that your team provided a Google link to the more-depth interview.

The immersion was spot on!  Actually waiting for the bus and feeling those struggles really helps you to connect with a user.  And nice job with the empathy around the length of time the trip took, the price of the ride, and the fact that the user may be not feeling well or have physical challenges complicating their process.  Was the return trip home similar?  Were the trip times consistent and convenient?

Interview- 2/24/17

Joe and Alex sat down with Geoff Zimpelman to discuss the current transportation problems and solutions that exist for the Saint Joseph Health Systems group. As manager of population health and multi-cultural access at Saint Joseph Health Systems, Geoff has unique knowledge regarding the standing problem. Over the past few years, Geoff has worked with many community centered organizations to find sustainable solutions that would allow all people to have access to transportation, especially when it comes to making doctor appointments and other medical visits. The current transportation problem has various layers including lack of knowledge, low funding, and overall inefficient services. It seems that people working in this space have a few ideas that could work, but they are “waiting” for something big to happen that will allow their ideas (solutions) to come into fruition. Attached is the Ethnographic Summary that will go into more detail regarding our interview with Geoff.

 

Geoff Zimpelman- Ethnography Summary – Google Docs