The city of Arlington, Texas, and Via have launched of a new on-demand transportation service to provide rides home for discharged hospital patients who otherwise would lack the resources to travel home independently.

The program will serve patients of a major North Texas hospital and is an extension of the city of Arlington’s Via Rideshare service, which has provided affordable on-demand rides as part of the city’s public transit network since 2017.

Via says this service marks a first-of-its-kind initiative in the U.S. between a publicly funded microtransit service and a major hospital, and provides a model for how public transit and healthcare organizations can collaborate to address health inequities and reduce barriers to accessing care.

The service is a stride forward in the city of Arlington and Via’s shared vision to enable local healthcare providers to leverage the city’s public on-demand microtransit service.