You may soon see market competition from an unexpected source — an Uber-style nurse service.
Chicago-based Go2Nurse provides people “with a healthcare professional on-demand,” reports media site ChicagoInno. “With 225 registered nurses on the platform, Go2Nurse lets you request service to your home and pay within the app.” Patients can also chat with nurses and doctors through the app, request a wheelchair accessible van upon demand, and other things.
Go2Nurse’s users come both from partnering with healthcare organizations and attracting individual users. Independent nurses sign up for the service, are vetted and background checked by Go2Nurse, and can begin offering services on their own time, Go2Nurse co-founder Edward Ben-Alec tells the site.
“2.5 million nurses are licensed and don’t practice,” Ben-Alec says. “Nurses have the ability to control their work environment much better (with Go2Nurse). They can do work from home. They can go out into the community and help patients. All without having to deal with an HR person.”Go2Nurse accepts Medicare, insurance, and other payors, the site notes. Similar start-ups are operating in Miami and New York, it says.