How this healthtech startup is disrupting India's medical transportation segment

India is experiencing a dire shortage of emergency medical services in urban and rural areas. The ratio of ambulances per person in the country is currently 3:1000. With a population of over 1.3 billion and the current rate of supply, the demand can never be catered to. A majority of the critical patients in an emergency lose their life due to lack of an ambulance to reach the hospital on time.

This begs the question as to what can be done to improve the patient transport system in India so that casualties are minimised. Hyderabad-based AmbiPalm was launched in September 2020 with the sole aim of tackling this issue at hand and helping patients get to the hospital in the quickest of time. The underlining vision of the company was to “become the 911 of India and the world” with regards to medical needs.

When the thought of AmbiPalm occurred to us, we had two options to achieve our goal of “Racing to Save Lives”:

1. Purchase our own fleet and deploy them in the cities we are operating in, or
2. Become an aggregator so that we can help facilitate patient transport more efficiently and conveniently with a quicker response time.

We opted for the second option which is the aggregator model because reaching out to all parts of the country would be faster and also help develop a coexistence between the ambulance service partners and the customer in liaison with AmbiPalm.

This model not only helps the local service providers to remain and thrive in their business but also renders quality service to its patients.

Before onboarding our service partners, a thorough background check and verification is done along with a detailed study to avoid compromises in the service delivery. It is recommended to take an ambulance only if it is ‘AmbiPalm verified’.

In a country where technology is evolving at lightning speed, getting an ambulance still remains a slightly longer process.

How it works

AmbiPalm has developed a unique and user-friendly app that allows patients to get quick access to an ambulance in the shortest periods of time. You can book your ambulance with a few clicks that reaches your doorstep within 10-15 minutes.

The app has a unique feature called ‘Negotiations’, a one-of-a-kind that allows customers to key in their pick-up and drop locations, select the type of ambulance like BLS (Basic Life Support), ALS (Advanced Life Support) or PTS (Patient Transport Services), etc and customise the features they want in the selected ambulance type as per availability, after which the beauty of the entire operation comes to action.

As per their algorithms, AmbiPalm suggests a recommended fare for the trip. This isn’t the confirmed fare but only an indication based on past trips. As a customer, you can enter the amount you would like to pay based on the suggestion given, which then goes out to our nearest partners who in turn, can revert with their acceptance or provide their individual quotes. Once received, you have the liberty of choosing which quotation is pocket-friendly while understanding the time taken for the ambulance to reach, post which the ambulance is dispatched immediately. The entire operation is completed within a minute.

Customers can also use our website www.ambipalm.com to book an ambulance or request for blood.  An added benefit to our customers is the 24/7 Customer Support which is a multi-linguistic support team to answer your queries in the language you are comfortable with. Customers can always reach us at 1800 270 911 911.

Currently operating out of 15 cities, AmbiPalm hopes to be present in a total of 30 Indian cities in the next six months.

Business and more

With our current fleet of 3,500+, we are already in talks with our partners to deploy ambulances in rural areas to cater to remote areas.

Apart from catering to emergency situations, we have become the de facto provider for general medical transport needs as well – whether it be a travel from home to hospital or inter hospital or hospital to any other location which also includes intercity – keeping in line with its underlying vision of becoming India’s future for medical transport.

AmbiPalm has also tied up with air ambulance providers to aid in quicker transport for patients who want to travel to another city and save on time.

The app also has a feature on blood. If you need blood, plasma, COVID plasma, platelets etc., all you need to do is place a request of your requirement on the app. Users who wish to donate the same, will revert with their acknowledgement and the app would connect the requester and donor to help the requirement be catered.