When your pharmacy needs to choose a medical courier service, it’s vital to pick a professional, reliable courier that delivers your items safely and on time.
Sure, those things are a given. But there’s much more that you should consider when hiring a medical courier. Here are other essential things to keep in mind for your pharmacy and your patients:
Transparency
Upfront Pricing
You deserve to know exactly what you’re paying for upfront. Look for a medical courier service that provides upfront pricing. Be sure to get a detailed invoice with transportation costs, fees, and indexed fuel surcharges. That way, your pharmacy can easily understand and integrate your medical courier costs into your larger financial efforts.
If there are any pricing changes, make sure you clearly understand the reason behind those changes. Transportation costs are part of any pharmacy, and it’s critical to ensure there are no surprises when it comes to delivery costs.
Real-Time Tracking
Choosing a medical courier service that offers real-time tracking for both the sender and the recipient is vital. That way, you always know when a patient’s delivery is set to arrive and when the delivery is complete. Your patient also benefits from the added security and convenience of real-time tracking, knowing exactly when their items will be delivered. For pharmacies and their patients, real-time tracking is a must.
Optimized Routes
It’s the job of a medical courier to get items to their destination as quickly as possible. This is especially critical with pharmaceuticals, so your medical courier should do everything possible to avoid delays. This includes choosing optimized routes and being prepared for unexpected traffic.
How A Medical Courier Service Optimizes Routes
Route Planning Software
Medical couriers use specialized software to plan and optimize routes, considering traffic, distance, and time of day.
GPS Tracking
Many medical couriers use GPS tracking to monitor the location of their vehicles and drivers in real-time. This allows them to reroute or adjust their plans, if necessary, quickly.
Communication
A medical courier service uses communication tools such as radio, phone, or messaging platforms to coordinate their efforts with team members.
And to make things easy for you, a medical courier should utilize an informative and straightforward self-service portal for your pharmacy. A good self-service portal allows you to check on packages, request changes to orders, and gather other important information.
At American Expediting, we always seek to ensure the best medical courier service by using the best tools (including Artificial Intelligence) to optimize our routes. We take our responsibility as a medical courier seriously and remain committed to the pharmacies we serve.
Temperature Controlled and Secure Delivery
When transporting temperature-sensitive medications, it’s essential to use a medical courier service that offers temperature-controlled logistics. This allows your medications to maintain the appropriate temperature during transport consistently.
This level of service requires proficiency in handling sensitive materials such as blood, lab specimens, and pharmaceuticals.
A medical courier service must ensure that they train and certify their carriers in handling and transporting these items, ensuring your temperature-controlled items arrive safely and on time.
American Expediting stores and transports your items in full compliance with all applicable regulations. Our specialists work with you to develop a chain of custody (COC) manifest that details the items to be transported, provides complete delivery visibility, and delivers the critical documentation necessary for all key milestones.
Flexible Hours
Patients need access to their prescriptions whenever they require them, including evenings, weekends and holidays. That means you need a medical courier service that operates outside “normal” business hours. This makes it possible for patients to receive vital medical equipment and medications anytime.
Experience
There are many rules and regulations in the healthcare industry. Partnering with an experienced and professional medical courier service provides peace of mind that protocols are being met. All while successfully delivering items to your patients on time.
You should only consider a medical courier service that delivers the following items: home infusions, x-rays, prescription medication, specimen samples, medical supplies and devices, surgical supplies, medical records, and medical equipment.
American Expediting transports these items and more for pharmacies around the country. Our carriers hold HIPAA certification, undergo background checks, and receive training in biohazard protocols. They know how to properly and safely handle all of your packages.
And in Florida and Georgia, American Expediting holds a special license for storing prescription drugs. This emphasizes our commitment to safely handling sensitive medical items, a crucial aspect of the highly regulated pharmaceutical logistics environment.
Hiring The Right Medical Courier Service
You know the importance of the items you deliver. It’s critical to find a medical courier service that also understands the importance. Not all medical couriers are created equal. Take time and do your research. If you consider the qualities and abilities outlined, we’re confident you will find the right medical courier for your pharmacy.
And please consider our experienced team of professionals at American Expediting. We are a medical courier service that understands the needs of your pharmacy. We have a nationwide network with years of experience managing the most complex pharmaceutical and therapeutic logistics, storage and transport requirements.
Please contact us to learn more about our professional medical courier service. With a commitment to customer service, advanced logistics technologies, and a deep understanding of the healthcare industry, American Expediting is the clear choice for your pharmacy.
And follow American Expediting on LinkedIn to see more from our healthcare logistics and medical courier company.
