Frequently asked questions

24 hrs, 7 days a week, call the emergency hotline we provide when you sign up as a member. You can also access our services via one of our API integrations (an SOS button inside your app, an SMS, a panic button, etc) if accessing through one of our Corporate partnerships.

If you’re a business with a customer, client or supplier app, and interested in our API integrations, talk to us about an integration. Our API is well tested, and partners have integrated in a matter of days. We can also help you build a custom solution.

When you dial our emergency hotline, one of our professional emergency response coordinators, expert in urgent care and dispatch operations, will answer and stay with you on the line throughout the rescue. We identify your location and get an essential understanding of your emergency condition to best determine what resource or resources you need.

We dispatch the closest, best equipped first responders using the Flare platform’s real-time tracking and coordination features. This means that the coordination is fast, efficient, and accurate. Our emergency response coordination experts stay with you on the line until help arrives - making sure you are ok, updating you on your response process, and helping troubleshoot anything that comes up in the process. They are all experienced medical professionals who can provide directions over the phone on any immediate medical interventions needed as you wait for your help to arrive.

When you sign up as a member, you can optionally share with us your frequent locations, key addresses, along with preferred doctors, hospitals, and treatment facilities.

During an emergency, the rescue.co emergency response coordination team will see this data, or alternatively use the various Flare platform features to locate patients and incidents: if a member calls us on our hotline, we can send an SMS location request to their phone that will get and retrieve their current location, the member can send us a WhatsApp Location Pin, or if they're using an SOS button in one of our API-integrated partner apps, we'll instantly already have their real-time location when they press the button to call for help.

No, there are no additional costs. Should you experience any emergency, your membership fully covers member rescues and pre-hospital care. This means there's no money exchanged or owed at the time of an emergency, should one arise.
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While we do not cover the treatment received at the hospital, we work with your insurance, doctor, and receiving medical facility to coordinate a swift and seamless admissions and insurance approval process. For more details about the terms of the membership, please check the terms and conditions provided in your welcome email.

We work with all hospitals and medical facilities in the event of an emergency, taking patients to the closest and best-equipped facility to treat the particular case. Our members tell us their preferred facilities and treatment centers when signing up. They also depend on us to assist in care coordination during an emergency. This means that depending on the nature and location of the emergency, we assist with locating the optimal facility for fast and quality care.

In an emergency, every minute matters. So if a member needs an urgent x-ray, CT scan, or MRI - for example - we'll make sure they know where that can be done right away, and we make sure they get there quickly.

The rescue.co emergency response coordination team leverages the Flare platform for each call, getting real-time information on emergency responders and urgent care services, and checking in with the facility to make sure they're ready to receive a patient on arrival.

We work with accredited emergency response partners who undergo a quality assessment to join our network. Once onboard, we assess the partners after every incident, and carry out random spot checks and drills.

Our aim is to grow with our first response partners, so welcome new partners who are interested in joining to get in touch and schedule your assessment.

All the first responders in our network use the Flare platform, which is a real-time emergency coordination platform, built to facilitate efficient dispatches.

When an emergency call comes in, and we have established the location, the dispatch always sends the nearest responder based on the Expected Time of Arrival (ETA). The ETA Is calculated using real-time and up-to-date information on road closures, and traffic conditions.

When seconds can make the difference in an emergency situation, we are always prioritizing the patient, ensuring the nearest and best-equipped team is headed toward the patient as fast as possible.

One of our favorite questions is ‘’how do you deal with traffic?’’ Our response times - from the point of a call to when the ambulance is on scene - average at 15 minutes. And they're often much faster. This includes rescues done through and within Nairobi traffic. The key is the Flare platform using real-time traffic and responder data to get the ambulance there as fast as possible.

First responders are on the frontlines of battling COVID19. While they're disproportionally affected by the virus globally, they are a critical force in saving patients and preventing spread and infection. Their proper use of PPE, as well as access to PPE is critical not just for their own wellbeing, but for the prevention of the spread of the virus.

Before the first case was discovered in Kenya, we worked together with our partners to distribute protocols, trained hundreds of EMTs on proper use of PPE, and distributed Personal Protective Equipment to our first responders.  

All of our ambulance partners are equipped with COVID19 PPE, and trained in caring for patients with suspected and confirmed COVID19. As well as proper disinfection and PPE donning and doffing protocols to protect themselves and their patients.

An unexpected side effect of the pandemic was reduced mobility and access to urgent care for non-COVID19 cases, particularly at night during the curfew, as well as in overcrowded facilities. To help ensure that women have access to health services during pregnancy and delivery, we joined the Wheels for Life initiative, and together with other partners like AMREF, and Kenya Health Federation, we have helped more than 100k women get the help they need.

Flare is the name of the digital platform and set of products that power our dispatch and response capacity, and rescue.co is our membership product and dispatch centre that make response available to families, teams, and businesses.

We are all part of the same company - Flare. While the Flare platform is used by our dispatchers and first responders, and is the backbone of the company, we wanted a membership product name that was intuitive - when you hear rescue.co, you immediately know what it is.

We are the first aggregator of emergency response providers in Kenya. By leveraging the Flare platform, along with mobile and cloud technology and AI, we track and coordinate hundreds of ambulances, security response teams, medical taxis, tow trucks and a host of other responders, to respond quickly and effectively. 

Our centralized dispatch enables us, not only to coordinate different first responders but to provide end-to-end holistic care coordination, from determining the type of help to send, the facility to take a patient to, or the location of a member in case of an urgent medical or security emergency. Think of us like a better and more efficient 911, 999, or 112 system.