Optimizing patient transport flows: feedback from pilot areas
THE medical transport is an essential link in the chain of care.
But its management, often complex and fragmented, generates delays, significant costs and a loss of quality for both patients and establishments.
To address this, several territories in France have launched pilot projects aimed at streamline and coordinate patient transport flows.
What lessons can be learned? What concrete solutions have been tested? Euromove offers you an overview.
A strategic issue for healthcare establishments
Management of inter-establishment transfers, scheduled consultations or returns home mobilizes hundreds of ambulances, VSLs or licensed taxis every day.
But in the absence of centralized control, journeys are often redundant, poorly optimized, or even carried out empty.
Result: increased pressure on teams, a additional cost for health insurance, and a degraded experience for patients.
What are the optimization levers identified?
Several levers for improvement emerge from the feedback:
- Centralization of requests via a single coordination platform
- Advance planning journeys, in connection with medical schedules
- Pooling of races between nearby establishments
- Real-time tracking vehicles and patients transported
Added to this is the challenge of integration into the hospital IT tools and in the systems of regulators such as SAMU.
Focus on three pilot territories
1. Brittany – Inter-establishment coordination
A hospital group has implemented a single platform to manage all scheduled journeys. The result: a 15% reduction in kilometers traveled and a doubling of vehicle occupancy rates.
2. Île-de-France – Sharing of non-urgent journeys
In certain peri-urban areas, home-hospital journeys are grouped by time slots and geographical areas, via shared service providers.
3. Occitanie – Connected transport monitoring
Using sensors and a mobile application, the logistics department tracks patient departures, delays, and arrivals, making it possible to anticipate incoming flows to the hospital.
What concrete results for patients and professionals?
- Reduction of waiting times for patients
- Fewer redundant or empty journeys
- Better well-being for paramedics and drivers, thanks to a better distributed load
- Measurable savings for institutions and social security
One of the main benefits is also better coordination between medical services, transportation and families.
Towards a generalization of good practices
This feedback paves the way for generalization on a regional or national scale.
The key: co-construct solutions between hospitals, health transporters, communities and technological platforms.
Projects such as “My Health 2022” or the Territorial Professional Health Communities (CPTS) now integrate this logistical dimension into their overall vision of care pathways.
To discover at Euromove 2026
THE Euromove trade fair devotes a significant amount of space to medical transport, with:
- Demonstrations of software solutions for flow coordination
- Exhibitors specializing in telematics, management platforms, adapted vehicles
- Conferences dedicated to optimizing health transport
📅 See the program
📍 Plan Your Visit
📩 Exhibit in the medical transport area
Conclusion
THE medical transport is a lever for performance, quality and savings in the healthcare chain. Feedback from pilot areas shows that solutions exist, are effective and can be duplicated.
Euromove 2026 is an opportunity to discover them, test them, and meet those who deploy them.
