From Dx to Rx: better healthcare starts with lab logistics
The United States alone has approximately 260,000 CLIA-certified labs, which the healthcare industry depends on for timely and accurate diagnostics.
A diagnosis is the first and most critical step of getting an appropriate treatment plan, which explains why 70% of medical decisions are made from results coming from 14 billion lab tests conducted annually, according to the CDC.
Lab results give medical professionals the information they need to confirm, exclude and classify diseases as well as monitor the ongoing treatment of patients. In some cases, lab diagnostics can also identify the conditions with genetic implications to help physicians treat health risks of an entire family.
Besides individual care, the speed and accuracy of lab diagnostics is critical for physicians and the CDC to identify and treat infectious diseases. Without timely information, physicians may be left with no other option than to prescribe general antibiotics, which could increase antibiotic resistance and worsen public health challenges.
Laboratory tests don’t always provide the answers. Experts in the medical field estimate that 40,000 to 80,000 deaths occur annually from preventable diagnostic errors that take patients down the wrong treatment path.
The use of optimized methods to obtain accurate test results can all be wasted if medical supply chains are not highly efficient and effective. The most preventable diagnostic errors are those that result from logistical problems such as delays and mistakes in transferring medical samples between clinics and laboratories. These errors make it more difficult to get the appropriate test results to the right place at the right time. Undue delay can also degrade the viability of the medical specimens not tested within a few days. Or in the case of irretrievable oncology biopsy specimens, logistical errors can be a nightmare for patients.
Effective lab logistics
Modern technology can secure and digitize the sample collection process at scale across supply chains for efficient exchanges.
BoxLock’s cloud-based platform and IoT devices give laboratories and medical clinics an effective system for on-time transfers of medical specimens and samples. The secure and rugged smart padlocks have cellular connectivity for deployment at scale.
When used for collection boxes at doctors’ offices, the technology keeps an accurate inventory of items awaiting pickups from couriers. Doctor’s offices scan barcodes on the items before placing them into the boxes with the padlock’s integrated barcode scanner. This level of control takes the emotion out of conversations between healthcare workers and medical couriers.
The padlocks send real-time notifications to laboratory operations staff to specify which sites have samples ready for pickup and identify the customer and type of testing service. The devices share these and other event details to a robust, cloud-based suite with audit log, access control, and inventory management tools.
When a medical courier arrives at a doctor’s office or clinic the driver uses a unique QR code to open permissioned BoxLock devices. The barcode scanning facilitates tracking, date and time stamping features that create an immutable log of every step in the logistics process.
Any medical test, and especially ones that can only be performed by a doctor, can be transferred between doctors’ offices and labs seamlessly and securely.
For more information about how BoxLock technology can benefit laboratory logistics and medical clinics, visit: https://www.getboxlock.com/lab-logistics