Route4Me > Case Studies > Pharmaceutical Service Scales Deliveries by 257% with Route4Me

Pharmaceutical Service Scales Deliveries by 257% with Route4Me

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Machine Learning
Robots - Wheeled Robots

Applicable Industries

Education
Pharmaceuticals

Applicable Functions

Facility Management
Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Time Sensitive Networking
Vehicle Telematics

Services

Data Science Services

About The Customer

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) is a major medical center located in Rochester, New York. It comprises the university’s primary medical, education, research, and patient care facilities. With over 33,000 employees, URMC is responsible for delivering pharmaceuticals to 8 major hospitals and the surrounding residential region of Rochester, NY. The delivery of these pharmaceuticals, many of which have a short shelf-life, is critical to the quality of care and patient outcomes at these facilities.

The Challenge

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) faced several challenges in delivering pharmaceuticals to 8 major hospitals and the surrounding residential region of Rochester, NY. The large service area and critical stop requirements made manual route planning time-consuming and inefficient. The situation was further complicated by the short shelf-life of many drugs, including chemotherapy drugs, which needed to be delivered to other facilities without expiring. Any delay in delivery could have serious implications for quality of care and patient outcomes. Additionally, as the number of stops per route increased, the complexity of the route also increased exponentially, making it harder to create efficient routes. Previous attempts to use other routing solutions from big name carriers to smaller providers proved unsuccessful as they were unable to handle the number of stops or factor in the necessary routing constraints.

The Solution

URMC turned to Route4Me, a route optimization solution introduced by Fleetistics. Route4Me's solution included route optimization, mobile app dispatch, and planned vs. actual reporting. The route optimization feature significantly reduced the time spent planning routes, from an average of 3 hours per day to just 20 to 30 minutes. The mobile app dispatch ensured on-time delivery of critical drugs with short shelf-lives, thereby improving patient outcomes, care, and satisfaction. The planned vs. actual reporting feature allowed URMC to better utilize its resources and efficiently scale the number of daily deliveries.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Route4Me's route optimization solution has significantly improved URMC's pharmaceutical delivery service. The time saved in route planning has allowed URMC to focus more on patient care and less on logistical challenges. The on-time delivery of critical drugs has improved patient outcomes, care, and satisfaction. Furthermore, the ability to efficiently scale the number of daily deliveries has enabled URMC to better serve its large service area. The success with Route4Me has ensured that URMC has not looked back since.

Quantitative Benefit

Reduced time spent planning routes by 350%, from 3 hours per day to 20-30 minutes
Increased the number of daily deliveries by 257%, from 70 to over 250
Added 5 new routes since the implementation of Route4Me