These two companies are partnering to make it easier to gift medical transportation

This online gift registry for people navigating any life changes and a healthcare transportation company are partnering to enable the gifting of rides for those in need.

Like Neighbors and RoundTrip started this new initiative in November 2018  that allows family and friends to easily organize and gift all levels of medical transportation, even from hundreds of miles away. The partnership aims to create an online caregiving community that connects those in need of rides with relatives and friends who want to help, the pair said in a press release. Riders can book rideshare via Lyft, medical sedans, wheelchair vans and non-emergency ambulances on-demand through RoundTrip’s online and mobile ordering system.

Philadelphia-based RoundTrip delivers non-emergency medical transportation services for patients and those who require safe and specialized transportation services. The company provides on-demand trip scheduling and monitoring services through an online trip-booking portal. Patients can expect to ride in medical cars, wheelchair vans, and stretcher vehicles as needed.

“We make it simple for a caring daughter in Chicago to help her elderly father in New Jersey get to his medical treatments. We also provide ongoing rides for specialized populations, like paratransit riders, to get to the grocery store or the pharmacy. It is extremely meaningful for us to expand our mission to use transportation as a way to alleviate burdens at a time when care is more essential than ever,” Lindsay Tsai, RoundTrip’s director of client growth said in a statement. “Our partnership with LikeNeighbors.com lets other friends and relatives pitch in as well. The positive emotional, logistical and financial impact this type of group giving has on a patient, the family and local caregivers can’t be overstated.”

Like Neighbors was created when founder Judy O’Connor coordinated a restaurant meal delivery for an out-of-state friend whose child was battling cancer. In the fall of 2017, the woman-founded startup came to the District enabling the gifting of meals through its first partner Galley, a meal-delivery startup.

“Now, in addition to organizing and gifting meal deliveries to loved ones through the Like Neighbors platform, friends and family nationwide can gift all levels of medical transportation as well – from a regular sedan through a non-emergency ambulance,” O’Connor told Technical.ly.

Like Neighbors works with organizations including Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Washington, DC, Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Fisher House, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and METAvivor to reach the people who need support, and their family and friends who want to provide it. O’Connor told Technical.ly that the company plans to add more services such as house cleaning and dog walking, until anyone, anywhere can organize, give and receive meaningful help when it matters most.