Healthcare logistics and patient safety are inextricably linked

June is designated as National Safety Month by the National Safety Council, with the directive to “help keep each other safe from the workplace to anyplace.” As both an employer of many “safety sensitive” team members and a service provider to healthcare organizations, it’s worth discussing how the service MedSpeed provides aids in keeping people safe.

If you look up patient safety on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) website, they note that “the occurrence of adverse events due to unsafe care is likely one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability in the world.” While the cause of harm can be from a range of adverse events, nearly 50% of those adverse events are preventable.

Let that sink in for a second. Almost half of those adverse events are preventable. Clearly, the goal must be to keep those “adverse events” to a minimum.

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Nurses reveal that medical courier errors have significant impact on patient care

Why an industry-low error rate helps drive care delivery

This Friday, May 6, marks the beginning of National Nurses’ Week. Since 1990, this week has been set aside to honor and acknowledge the vital role that nurses “play in ensuring our health and prosperity.”

Given this, I think it is fitting to share some recent findings about how the care nurses provide can be significantly impacted by healthcare logistics or courier services. A couple of months ago, we partnered with American Nurse Journal, the official journal of the American Nurses Association, to survey nurses to better understand how logistics and courier services impact those incredibly important frontline healthcare workers. And while we thought we had a reasonable idea of what they encounter, the results were pretty staggering.

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Twenty-Two Years and Counting—Thanks to our MedSpeeders

On April 10^th MedSpeed turned 22. In the time since we began operations with three routes in Chicago, we’ve seen many changes within the healthcare industry and within our own organization.

For all of these – and they are too numerous to list – one thing has been true throughout: everything we do rests on the foundation of our team, the now nearly 3,000 MedSpeeders that live our mission every day.

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Why healthcare needs to address the “E” in ESG

The recent climate accord in Glasgow, Scotland, brought world leaders together to discuss the serious impact of climate change. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are a large contributor to climate change which is why the U.S. is on the path to cut its GHG emissions by between 50% and 52% from 2005 levels by 2030.

J.P. Morgan Chase spotlighted the huge impact that healthcare has on GHG emissions. “The healthcare sector uses enough energy that even a modest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will play a significant part in the global effort to reduce emissions.”

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What Lies Ahead in 2022

It’s the start of a new year, and with a new calendar, comes predictions about what to expect. Fierce Healthcare recently asked 12 healthcare executives for their thoughts about what lies ahead in 2022.

Many of the themes that were foisted on the industry or accelerated by pandemic are still at play in their predictions: interest in virtual care, responding to the ongoing pandemic and the need to focus more on patients’ social needs. One area of note is how COVID-19 sharpened the focus on health inequity and the need to address social determinants of health (SDOH).

John Schwartz, chief revenue officer at HSBlox highlighted how his team “uncovered the value of incorporating social health requirements.” He went on to say that care outside the walls of the hospital continues to grow and so too has a need to incorporate SDOH.

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The healthcare supply chain and what we’ve learned since COVID-19

A high functioning supply chain has always been vital, but never was its true criticality more in stark relief than at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial shortage of PPE made headlines everywhere. As I’ve recounted in this space before, our team at MedSpeed was able to play a role in supporting our clients as they worked to ramp up their management and distribution of these lifesaving supplies during this crucial time.

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Proving the Negative

The difficult part of risk mitigation is realizing what investments are needed before it’s too late.

In 4sight Health’s recent article, “September 11^th and the importance of proving negatives”, David Johnson shines a light on how hard it is to prove the urgency and thereby justify the investment to avoid consequences from events we have never experienced and hope to never experience.

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Significant Growth Only Happens with the Help of a Whole lot of People

Last week, MedSpeed was named for the fifth time to the Inc. 5000, a list of the fastest-growing companies in America. At its heart, this is a recognition of our unbelievably dedicated team and an affirmation of their efforts.

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Overcoming Unnecessary Variation

What does a hospital system do when $1.4 trillion, one-third of the annual healthcare spend at university hospitals, was wasted by defects? They shine a light on those defects in value and then prioritize solutions to overcome them.

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What we learned when a customer didn’t renew (and came back within a week)

Recently, MedSpeed lost an RFP to renew our work with a valued customer. Within a week of the new vendor taking over the service, that customer asked us to return – and to do so with urgency.

Let me tell you the story.

A few months ago, MedSpeed got the phone call that we were not being renewed, something we have only experienced three times in our history. This news really, really hurt. But we did our best to shake it off and commit to learning from the pain. Taking this positive thought forward, we operated with excellence until our final day, at which point we shut down and dismantled our local operations.

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