Manufacturers of equipment and supplies for the healthcare industry know the importance of reliable and resilient shipping practices. Multiple factors, including security, handling, temperature control, chain-of-custody, and other compliance requirements make healthcare one of the most demanding and high-stakes logistics sectors. Adding to the complexity, consignees range from giant medical complexes to urban pharmacies, to small rural facilities—all with a particular infrastructure, capacity, and scheduling needs. There’s also the simple urgency of the cargo itself. Getting the right items into the hands of caregivers on time is not just about moving widgets or checking boxes in a spreadsheet, it’s about enabling quality care.
Healthcare Has Unique and Specific Needs
One large over-the-counter pharmaceutical manufacturer knows all about the pressures of the healthcare supply chain. The company ships to big box retailers using Must Arrive by Date services to ensure their shipments arrive in a specific delivery window.
“Medical products can’t help anyone if they aren’t distributed effectively,” said the pharma company’s LTL traffic manager. “There are a host of factors that are unique to this market—compliance, showing up on time, in full, and meeting tight delivery windows. The consequences aren’t just higher costs if they aren't handled well. It could mean empty shelves and a strained relationship with the retailer and the consumer.”
Handling and Inventory Issues Drive Shipping Complexity
Indeed, the sheer volume of factors in play when it comes to healthcare shipping can be overwhelming. Some pharmaceutical products have short shelf lives, and compliance often has to be documented at every step. It’s imperative that shippers work with carriers who are flexible enough to meet both their complex parameters and data requirements, while also being able to deliver product safely, regardless of the scale and complexities of the delivery site.
Shippers often turn to an extra layer of safety by using security divider services that ensure products are untouched from origin to destination.
Over time, the sheer number of drugs, devices, and equipment has ballooned, making modern healthcare inventory management and restocking all the more complex. Today’s hospitals stock more individual items than at any time in history, stressing administrators who have to strike a balance between overstocking (which crowds out space) and understocking (which can have potentially dire consequences).
Many organizations have adopted digital tracking systems, as well as advanced analytics and modeling to guide their often-daily reordering. In fact, investment in healthcare inventory management systems is expected to rise to more than $600M by 2028. These digitized back-end systems allow precise amounts of supplies to be directed to thousands of locations, making back-end integration with carriers critical for reliable delivery.
There are a host of factors that are unique to this market—compliance, showing up on time, in full, and meeting tight delivery windows. The consequences aren’t just higher costs if they aren't handled well. It could mean empty shelves and a strained relationship with the retailer and the consumer.
Flexibility Equals Reliability
“The world never stops throwing you curveballs,” says Cecil Thompson, Director of Corporate Accounts at Old Dominion. “When the quality of care you provide has the potential to be impacted, it’s important that you can always get someone on the phone to handle the situation. OD has five decades of experience as a carrier for the healthcare industry, and our attention to detail and personalized service are critical factors to our success in this market.”
Old Dominion is ranked first in flexibility of operations among all national LTL carriers, and that flexibility has come into play countless times with its healthcare shippers. Tracking capabilities allow companies and caregivers to always know where their shipments are, and chain-of-custody and additional protections can be added to any shipping order.
OD’s guaranteed delivery windows mean that critical supplies arrive when they’re needed, and its low damage claims rate means they arrive intact—priceless factors in today’s intricate medical ordering and inventory environment, in a business where damaged goods are often entirely unusable.
“OD stands behind every shipment,” says Thompson. “We’ve built a legacy of reliability that means we not only have the capacity to handle unexpected events, we have the people on call to make sure shipments get where they’re supposed to go, no matter what.”
What To Look For In a Healthcare Carrier
Take the time upfront to make sure your carrier can deliver for you when it matters most. Make sure your carrier has good answers to the following questions:
- Who do I call when I have a question?
- How easy is it to reach a live person to solve my issue?
- Do you have the flexibility to deliver to any site, regardless of size, capacity, or whether there is a loading dock?
- What are your policies on scheduling last-minute shipments and in-transit route changes?
- What is your on-time delivery rate?
- What is your damage claim ratio?
- What level of back-end API integrations do you support?
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To find out more about Old Dominion’s Healthcare shipping expertise, contact one of OD’s dedicated Solution Specialists at 800-235-5569 or contact our Customer Service team for a response within 24 hours.