As medication therapies continue to innovate and rely on cold chain delivery, including the COVID-19 vaccine, health systems need to evaluate their programs, leverage technology and ensure their systems are fully managed to best help patients, reduce costs and streamline efficiency. Patient-centered cold chain supply chains focused on last-mile prescription delivery have evolved significantly over the last 15 years. This advancement might be due to the relative novelty of cold chain, which did not play a key role in patient interactions in the past.

Overcoming Initial Growing Pains

Because there has been no template for how to incorporate cold chain solutions into health systems’ and hospitals’ supply chains, they have had to rely on their staff, pharmacists, and partners to create what could be said is an ad hoc program. One of the greatest challenges they faced is determining how to verify a shipment — which product is best? How can a transaction be monitored? Thanks to advancements in technology, we can now use low-energy Bluetooth monitors to track micron-level environmental readings and use systems to verify a shipment’s progress.

Packaging is another area that has made significant strides in the past few decades. The industry has transitioned from status quo styrofoam packaging to making environmentally friendly packaging a priority. These advancements provide us with the resources, systems, and information we need to provide safe, consistent, and timely medication to patients everywhere.

Anticipating Future Innovation

The evolution of medicine forces insurance companies to redefine reimbursement to health systems, which in turn redefines priority around cold chain and accreditation. As researchers continue to advance medicine and cure diseases earlier, the health system supply chain must quickly catch up in support.

The industry will rely even more on mail medication and virtual healthcare in the future, and we can likely anticipate additional innovation soon. From packaging infused with chemicals to help products stay within temperature range during transport to incorporating technology within every shipping container so we have a live monitor to verify the conditions via an app every step of the way, cold supply chains will become even more accessible and reliable.

Investing in a Managed Cold Chain

To streamline current operations and prepare for future innovations, health systems should prioritize a managed cold supply chain, or create a process and leverage technology that delivers full transparency and awareness of inbound and outbound products. A managed system has processes in place to know if and when a shipment gets delivered, is opened in a timely manner and is properly stored. It also utilizes technology controls to track audits, losses and complaints, and fix potential issues before they materialize. Managed chains can be spearheaded within an organization or through a partnership that fills the gaps more easily than a custom process, such as TRIOSE’s Pharmacy IQ, which allows pharmacies to seamlessly incorporate delivery services into their existing structure.

On the other hand, an unmanaged system can be incredibly scary because it leaves systems vulnerable to the unknown. From a patient safety standpoint, when products can’t be verified, medicine to a patient’s home might arrive expired, useless or even dangerous. Unmanaged supply chains are also dangerous from a cost perspective. Consider the cost of specialty medication, which can have values of over $60,000 and be rendered useless because it circled via UPS or FedEx for five days without anyone knowing about it. There is a spectrum of significant risks to an unmanaged cold supply chain — safety, finances, lawsuits, etc.

Cold chain solutions might still be a relatively new frontier for healthcare providers, but there are a number of industry best practices that can be leveraged to maximize success. Prioritizing an assigned accountability person to manage inbound and outbound processes and investing in technology that boosts transparency at every turn aids in avoiding risks, increasing patient safety and improving health systems’ bottom lines.