Everything To Know About Shipping Pharmaceuticals With John Golden From ParcelShield - Ep. 44
In This Episode
In the words of John Golden, vice president of sales at ParcelShield, “Shipping medication is a risky business, but it's also critical to hundreds of millions of those that are depending on pharmacy services.”
In this episode of Unboxing Logistics, John and Lori discuss the risks pharmaceutical shipments face and how the right technology can protect healthcare businesses and patients alike.
Challenges and risks when shipping pharmaceuticals
ParcelShield’s motto? It’s not just a package, it’s a patient. Because medical supplies and prescription drugs make such a huge difference in people’s lives, pharmacies must carefully consider logistical risks when shipping them.
John says, “Many pharmaceuticals are time-sensitive. They're temperature-sensitive. They're highly regulated. … They're expensive. They're also life-sustaining. … There's risks out there like flight delays, extreme weather, traffic, or carrier dependability.”
The importance of proof of delivery
Proof of delivery is always useful for giving customers peace of mind, but when shipping expensive pharmaceuticals, it’s non-negotiable. John explains that if the government or a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) pays for a medication, they want to make sure the package arrives.
Without proof of delivery, “governments and PBMs [could] claw back the money that they paid you for those medications.”
Using technology to decrease risk
Technology helps ensure the safe, timely delivery of pharmaceutical shipments by predicting when and where packages could get delayed. According to John, these systems “leverage things like predictive analytics and machine learning … [to look] for advanced warnings.”
He goes on, “[The risk] could be wildfires. It could be hurricanes. It could be Mardi Gras. It could be the Super Bowl. But technology exists to be able to provide what we would call an early warning system to help to avoid shipping medications into a high-risk situation.”
Links
- Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnvgolden/
- Visit ParcelShield’s website: https://www.parcelshield.com/
Transcript
Lori Boyer 00:00
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics. I'm your host, Lori Boyer from EasyPost, and I am really excited about today's topic. So we talk about shipping all the time on Unboxing Logistics, obviously, and everything that goes with that. But today we're going to be talking about a little bit of a challenging shipping market.
We're going to be talking about pharmaceuticals. And I have not had anyone yet, John, on my show talk about pharmaceuticals. So I am really excited to kind of drill in. Figure out all the best practices around pharmaceuticals, what our community out there who's watching should know about pharmaceuticals, anything about kind of shipping some of these specialty items, really of interest, really exciting.
So I have John Golden from ParcelShield here. He is going to share with us today and be our guru, our head of knowledge. But John, will you introduce yourself to our audience?
John Golden 00:53
Absolutely. Thank you, Lori. I'm John Golden, vice president of sales with ParcelShield. I have over 20 years experience working in specialty pharmacy, that's sales, marketing, managed care for companies like Accredo for 10 years prior to Express Scripts, and then ultimately Cigna acquiring Accredo, Accredo.
Now it is the specialty of pharmacy for Cigna. That's, I started out really in the field as a field sales rep. And I ultimately ended up leading their sales organization, and I also led a sales organization for a company called Emeriton, especially infusion. I led their sales team for 5 years.
They're based on Denver owned by BrightSpring. I started by knocking on doors for positions, selling the benefits of home infusion services, and I'm intimately aware of shipping related issues that impact far more than the pharmacy responsible for the shipping. For the past few years, I've been working with ParcelShield, helping pharmacies ensure mission critical shipments arrive on day to a patient in viable condition for use.
Lori Boyer 01:55
Wow, awesome. Okay, before we get started, couple of things. First, I've been asking all my guests this season. What is your go to comfort food? I think I'm just getting ideas. So if you are having a rough day, you know, what, what is going to cheer you up?
John Golden 02:15
Well, I live in Texas and I love a good chicken fried steak.
Lori Boyer 02:20
Chicken fried steak. Okay. I was just literally researching the other day. I went out to dinner with some friends and they got chicken fried chicken. And so then I had to do all this research into what is the difference between just chicken fried chicken and fried chicken. But you like a chicken fried steak. It's kind of in the way they cook it in the batter, right?
John Golden 02:38
It is. And I'll have either one, but I have to have mashed potatoes alongside it.
Lori Boyer 02:44
Mashed potatoes, comfort food all day long. You got that one down. Okay. John, before we even really dive into all the ins and outs, all the little nitty gritty around pharmacy.
I always like my guests to be able to share one or two takeaways that you absolutely, what is most critical? If somebody doesn't remember anything else from today except for that our hair looked amazing of course, point number one, but if they don't remember anything else today what is it you want them to take away with them after today's episode?
John Golden 03:16
I think the biggest takeaway is that shipping medication is a risky business, but it's also critical to hundreds of millions of those that are depending on pharmacy services.
There's a lot that can go wrong during a package journey. And, you know, pharmacies and patients feel helpless when that occurs. So, thankfully, there's technology here to help pharmacies prevent risk to improve on day delivery so that they can focus on the business of pharmacy. And there's no need to wait to access those tools. The future is here today.
Lori Boyer 03:48
Awesome. Okay. So I love that you brought that up. I did some research around this, wanted to check into the pharmaceutical industry, and super fascinating. And my hunch is a lot of this has changed due to COVID, but in 2020, the pharmaceutical logistics market was, I'm going to look at my stats here, 72.6 billion dollars. It's expected, forecasted to reach 114, almost 115 billion by 2026. And I think that as COVID hit, a lot of us just got a lot more comfortable with receiving things like prescriptions in the mail, things we maybe we would have done in person before. Unfortunately, I'm going to check my number again.
The industry, pharmaceutical industry loses 35 billion a year due to logistics issues. So as you said, it's kind of high risk, high reward, baby. This is the kind of industry we're in here. There's a lot of potential for some big time money. Loss, though, is a big deal. So, John, what are the challenges that are kind of bringing about some of these losses?
What are the unique challenges facing those who do want to get into this or currently are shipping pharmaceuticals?
John Golden 04:58
There's quite a few challenges. And the company I work for, we have a motto, and our motto is it's not just a package, it's a patient. And I think that motto really permeates everything it is that we do.
And that needs to be the attitude of anybody that's going to be shipping pharmaceutical products. So, you know, many of them, many of the pharmaceuticals are time sensitive. They're temperature sensitive. They're highly regulated. And, you know, frankly, as you mentioned for specialty. They're expensive. They're also life sustaining.
I think even with careful planning, our clients can't predict risks that are associated with preventing on day delivery and in our case, life sustaining patient medications. So there's risks out there like flight delays, like extreme weather, like traffic, or carrier dependability, or even, you know, recipient risk. So the risk of the patient not being home to deliver when the patient, when the package arrives.
Lori Boyer 05:53
Is that a fairly common situation. I know a lot of packages in general. I think I read 20 percent of all packages are not delivered the first time they were tried to is, is that a similar number in pharmaceuticals?
John Golden 06:05
It is a very common reason for a package not being delivered on time. Customer not available is one of the most common.
Lori Boyer 06:12
Yeah. Okay. So, so go on. How then, if you are facing all these challenges, you know, flights do get delayed, weather happens, you know, certain roads and routes, all of that. We know it's the industry.
So what are some of the ways to kind of hone in and alleviate some of those problems?
John Golden 06:34
Much of that has to do with with technology. So that is where you can, you know, leverage things like predictive analytics and machine learning, which happens to be the specialty of the company that I work for. And and looking for advanced warnings looking out for weather, looking out for extreme events.
That could be wildfires. It could be hurricanes. It could be, it could be Mardi Gras. It could be Super Bowl. But technology exists to be able to provide what we would call an early warning system to help to avoid shipping medications into a high risky situation.
Lori Boyer 07:10
Is that when maybe a notification goes out and says, hey, you really need to come pick this up somewhere and not have it delivered. How does that work? If so, let's say you get a red flag. Do not ship. What, what happens next?
John Golden 07:23
Yeah, that is an option, and that's the option that we would provide to our customers. So our customers could actually use their transportation management system and turn off entire zip codes or entire areas to let their warehouse personnel know not to ship that day and actually prevent it from being shipped that day. So it doesn't lead into, it doesn't, it's not shipped into a risky situation.
Lori Boyer 07:44
Okay so you talked about machine learning, predictive analysis, analytics, all of that. What what are we looking at when you when you do that? So let's say that somebody has a system of their own. You know what, what kind of events or or things are should they be looking for?
John Golden 08:04
Well, it's easy if you just want to go on to weather.com and see what the weather is. But tools like ours.
Lori Boyer 08:10
Across all the country!
John Golden 08:12
Across all the country. Or local or look on your phone, but our tool takes carrier data into account. So historical carrier data from the major carriers and looks back over 15 years to look at routes and to look at challenges for specific routes, whether it's related to hurricanes, whether it's related to extreme weather events, but really the carrier performances themselves, because carriers do vary carrier to carrier.
So we know by looking backwards and utilizing machine learning and predictive analytics, depending on the carrier exactly where that package should be at any given time. And we're looking for not only package scans from that carrier. We're looking for lack of scan and a lack of package scan is going to be the first thing to indicate to us that this package could be delayed.
Now, maybe it's not delayed because maybe a scan was just missed and we're going to pick it up on the next scan, but it is an early indicator. And one of the examples of how advanced advanced machine learning that that are tools that are available here at ParcelShield helps our clients to be able to avoid shipping into risky situations.
But also, once a package is in flight, how, how can we help? And how can we identify that that package is at risk? And what can be done about it?
Lori Boyer 09:30
Okay. So there were a couple of key things there that I caught. 15 years. I thought that was a great kind of benchmark. So looking back over, you know, at least if you're going to do, you know, obviously you could use incredible companies like ParcelShield who have all that data. If you're trying to do it on your own it's hard, but be looking at least 15 years. Is that where you say? At least 15 years? Should it be 10 years at least? You have recommendations for how many years of analytics people should be trying to review.
John Golden 10:00
I think that would be a challenge and I'm, I'm frankly unaware of how someone without the tools and technology of a ParcelShield could look back, you know, on their own having that, that, that amount of data to be able to pull from.
Lori Boyer 10:14
Yeah, so, but if you are looking at anybody or any sort of system, make sure that it's not like 2 years, make sure that you're checking at least a good data set that they have.
A lot of past information, you know, like, like ParcelShield may have access to. In addition, I loved that red flag of things not getting signed. I love anything that's going to show up a potential red flag. So let's say through this scenario, maybe walk me through a scenario. What would be a common situation or something you particularly have faced at ParcelShield with a customer?
John Golden 10:49
Yeah, so an example would be, for instance, utilizing our predictive analytics to to identify risk level of zip codes. And for instance, if if I happen to live in Houston, a hurricanes coming the one recent hurricane came, we didn't expect it to come, but, but ParcelShield did have some advanced warning that a hurricane was on our way.
And so that would allow our customers to be able to close down zip codes in the Houston area. So a package wouldn't be shipped. I mentioned that during shipment, we provide early detection that a package is at risk. And our customers, and we would alert our customers that there was a delay. And another example is we would set up rules of engagement with each one of our customers.
So our customers could determine how that package should be handled based on certain criteria. And then we can automate those moves if necessary. And all of this is based on predictive analytics.
Lori Boyer 11:44
Wow, interesting. Yeah, that's fantastic. Can we talk about temperature issues? So I, my guess would be within pharmaceuticals, temperature sensitivity is going to be a big issue when it comes to reliable shipping and whatnot. Do you have recommendations? Best practices? How, how do these companies manage temperature issues?
John Golden 12:04
Yeah, first, a lot of the products are very sensitive to temperature and that's going to determine your pack out, meaning how many hours that your product is going to remain viable during shipment and and how those packages are going to be shipped. All of that increases cost and all of that increases risk.
You know, when it comes to temperature also, there are, there are regulatory requirements. And that, those regulatory requirements, they require some pretty meticulous documentation every step in the supply chain. And that all necessitates both administrative burden and robust tracking systems, which ParcelShield does include.
Lori Boyer 12:39
So yeah, I want to talk tracking. I just have kind of a random question. So let's say I got a package. I ordered something. In fact, recently my husband got a prescription sent to him. One of my first that was sent in a cooler or whatever, you know, with all the ice stuff. It needed to be refrigerated. Keep cool.
Now I live in Dallas and it's super hot. So, and I wasn't home. And so then I was feeling really nervous, like, oh no, I wonder how long this can be left out on the porch, you know, when it's 110 degrees. Are there, what happens, let's say if somebody isn't home for a few days, does that package get sent back?
Do they have a notification of, oh, if you haven't taken this in your house for a certain amount of time you should dispose of it. How does that work?
John Golden 13:22
Yeah, the first thing that I think that you should do, especially in that, in that case, if you have concerns is to contact your pharmacy and get, get recommendations from your pharmacy as to what to do.
There are pack out requirements to make sure that those packages maintain a certain temperature throughout the package journey. And you mentioned that you're in Dallas. The package, though, travels throughout different cities. And depending on the length of time that that package is going to be in each city, there are temperature variations that could impact that pack out.
So, if a package happens to be delayed in Arizona for too long. Perhaps that package is no longer viable. And that's where the tracking and monitoring really comes in. Also predictive analytics. So, as we're making recommendations for what that pack out should be, we're looking at where that package is going to travel.
How long that package is going to be there. What the extreme temperatures are in those different locations in order to make those recommendations for our customers.
Lori Boyer 14:20
Could it be then a system can take those predictive analysis, analytics and say, hey, I think we should switch routes because 80 percent of the time there's a lengthy delay in Phoenix or something like that.
Let's go through Minnesota. And I don't know. I'm just making these up, but you know, somewhere where it's safer temperature wise. That is another way kind of the analytics are used.
John Golden 14:40
Yeah, some of the analytics that are available today you is through AI, we are able to look at the different routes and predict the lowest level of risk of that package being delayed.
And then we, we include costs associated as well for our customers and their contracted rates with with their carriers and say, not only is this going to be the lowest level of risk for your package to arrive in viable condition. We take rates into consideration and say, this will be the lowest cost as well.
Lori Boyer 15:11
Yes. So AI is a really cool way. That's I, those of you who listen regularly, you know, I always say I feel like AI in some areas in our industry is overhyped and not really being used yet. Route management, price comparisons, those are absolutely ways that you should be taking advantage of AI, predictive analytics machine learning, all of that.
That is in our industry, you know, bread and butter of being able to use AI today. So absolutely make sure you do that. Are there ways, so if you had a customer, for instance, who was a pharmacy, let's say it was a pharmacy who sent that prescription to my husband, could they have had the option to say somebody needs to sign for this?
You know, looking back, I think maybe we should have picked that. Or is that something that companies should typically have an option or should be offering that to their customers?
John Golden 16:03
Oh, absolutely. So proof of delivery is something that can be offered it for, for pharmacies that are requiring that. There's also, proof of delivery is really important, and we may talk about it a little bit later on, but being able to capture that signature to show that that package was actually signed for and arrived and being able to recall that signature on your fingertips is also critical.
Lori Boyer 16:27
Yes. So somebody doesn't say, I never got it. And then you're like, here's your signature.
Yeah, exactly. Okay. We've mentioned tracking a little bit. I want to get into that real time monitoring, tracking. You know, we have kind of a wide range, everything from like, every single instant on GPS, you know where a package is, to like some systems that are very, you hardly know from point A it left and who knows where it went between the last two weeks and ended up at the house.
So, you know, what kind of analytics do you recommend when it comes to tracking for pharmacy? What, what points are critical to make sure that you're knowing where the package is?
John Golden 17:05
Yeah, there are just some some some basic tools that are available. For instance, you can log into the carrier. You can put it in your tracking number.
You can get a status update. Most of our customers utilize multiple carriers, so you'll want what we call carrier, a carrier agnostic solution where you can have dashboards and you can have alerts for monitoring shipment space, you know, all in one place. Combining what we talked about predictive analytics for early disrupting and detection and intervention.
Should that package experience a delay? You're going to want an all in one solution. So, everything that will provide your recommendation for the shipment method at the lowest risk that we talked about, along with the lowest cost tracking and monitoring along the journey we provide all of that. But now, but now with our partnership with EasyPost. It's going to allow customers to utilize our tool to print labels directly through our software, and that's going to dramatically improve the efficiency of the workflow. And that's going to reinforce the all in one solution. A couple of other things that you'll want to look for, you'll want to have a tool that has a watch list, because there could be specific patches, packages.
You mentioned your husband, and you could have had an issue with this in the past. And you'll want to say, okay, as a pharmacy, I want to make sure I'm monitoring that package and it gets there on time. I want to separate that from the rest. So this could be a package recipient that's had prior challenges.
It could be a VIP. So you want a tool that will be able to let you identify a specific package that you want to monitor throughout the package journey. And and then you're going to want to be able to collect all this data so they can use it for reporting purposes later on.
Lori Boyer 18:47
That's, that's two really great points there that I really wanted to highlight again. Multi carrier, I think the risk, we all know if you are stuck with a single carrier and something happens, whether it's a strike or whatever risk wise, you're going to want to be able to quickly pivot to a different carrier, whether that's a regional carrier, a local carrier, a, you know, another one of the big ones, however it is.
But also I feel like just from the consumer standpoint, thinking about the consumer experience as I think about my husband's experience, you know, I didn't have a very good experience because I felt uncertain. I felt like I didn't get communicated well with how quickly I should be knowing and when it was going to come.
I didn't have the notice. It came a day earlier than I expected, which was, you know, often you think, oh, early package. Huzzah. In this case, I thought I'm not home that day. What am I supposed to do? So any recommendations for, let's say, pharmaceutical companies out there or something when it comes to that customer experience in communication how often, what should they be doing?
John Golden 19:55
Yes. Now that kind of goes back to the all in one solution, because if you could have a solution that could look at look out from before you ever ship that package and provide your recommendations all the way to proof of delivery, customer communication is critical. And it's critical for providing visibility to customers to let them know that a package is on the way.
And so make sure that you have a method for alerting a patient in our case, that a package is leaving, a package is on the way. It's in route. It's delayed or it's there. Our solution happens to even have the extra step to say, if you have a notification that your package has arrived and it hasn't arrived, there's a little button that you can click that just says my package hasn't arrived.
And that can start an investigation. So all of these tools are available today and all, again, it's more than just a package. It's a patient.
Lori Boyer 20:50
More than a package. It's a patient. So when you're looking for technology out there to help make sure, obviously with pharmaceuticals, you're going to need to use technology.
You're going to need to use analytics. You're all of those to reduce that risk factor, which is a high challenge in this industry. When you're looking for tools, make sure that it's got a lot of those, you know, customer patient friendly methods that are available. I really love that at parcel show that you do have that button.
They could click find out, though, do your due diligence when you're looking into technology, make sure that you're not going to end up having the experience that I had.
What about regulations? So that kind of brings me up to kind of the regulations, compliance sort of issues. If you are looking through technology so let's say even let's just use ParcelShield as the example here, then. How how does ParcelShield, how should technology be able to help with compliance?
John Golden 21:44
So, one of the things I think with compliance to consider, we talked a little bit about it, is proof of delivery. So there are regulations that are going to say, hey, if if a package was shipped and you're billing for it, we need to be able to make sure that, you know, we paid you as a, as a government, or as a PBM, we're going to want to know that there's evidence that that package had arrived.
So, what that can do from a compliance standpoint is it could create a compliance audit. That audit could then the internal audit could then cause governments and PDMs to claw back the money that they paid you for those those medications. If, in fact, you're not able to produce proof of delivery. So we happen to maintain proof of delivery for 10 years, which is which is, which is something that's going to be important from a compliance standpoint.
Lori Boyer 22:36
Okay, really interesting because obviously across the industry, we always like to show, oh, yeah, look, your package arrived. You can't just get a refund. But in this case, we're facing additional compliance issues. And so that proof of delivery is no longer just a nice thing. It's an absolute must have. And the storage of it.
So that kind of brings up another question makes me think you're storing all this data. We have all this information. Obviously, in healthcare, there are additional HIPAA, you know, issues. Data, you know, security when it comes to a person's identity and what's going out. What, how does that play into the logistics industry?
John Golden 23:14
Yeah, I think secure storage of delivery data, it, it ensures protection as you mentioned mentioned in compliance with HIPAA. There's other industry specific standards. There are fines that can be associated with with delivery data being out. If they can connect it back to the patient and the medication that they're on, there are legal issues associated with data breaches, they can cost thousands, if not millions of dollars, you know, and even lead to imprisonment for severe violations.
So, secure data can help safely store data, can be analyzed to reduce shipping times, prevent delays, discover any other issues that can be managed to lead to a better resource allocation for savings.
Lori Boyer 23:57
So, what when you say securely contain the data, what does that look like? What does that mean?
John Golden 24:02
That means the steps that an organization would take when they're, when they are absorbing data and making sure that that that data is secure and they are meeting security standards that are going to make sure that that data does not leave the secure space.
And then, in fact, put a patient's identification and the medications that they're on at risk.
Lori Boyer 24:23
Okay, so make sure that you're looking into whatever SOC 2 or whatever standards companies have to make sure that they are securely holding that data. And you as a pharmacy, as any other, you know, company shipping pharmaceuticals is not liable for any of that kind of data challenges.
What do you see as where I feel like this industry and what studies show is just going to continue to grow. People are going to become more and more comfortable with just getting their medications shipped directly to them. That does bring more challenges as always. What, what are you, if you were going to look into John's crystal ball, what are you seeing the future in this kind of logistics and shipping industry going?
John Golden 25:04
Yeah, no, that's a great question. And like I said, kind of in, in some ways, the future is here. We talked a lot about AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics. If a pharmacy has a manifest of shipments and and the next step is usually to print labels and have a carrier or courier come pick them up, then that it's kind of cross your fingers and hope.
Right? So, you know, what if you could feed that manifest into a platform? That would then analyze it using AI machine learning to for your shipments. They'll identify the risks. They'll provide you with the shipping method with the lowest level of risk. And now at the lowest cost. That exists today at ParcelShield.
I think, you know, home delivery of medications. It's there's there's a rise in telemedicine and it's, it's driving an increase for you know, direct to patient models where pharmaceuticals are shipped directly to patients homes. And that necessitates new logistics solutions that ensure safety and efficacy for those deliveries. And, you know, ParcelShield protects those shipments today.
So, and I also think in the future, you know, further collaboration, bringing complimentary services together, like ParcelShield and EasyPost, that improve improves the employee experience. The employee that's actually putting that label on the package and delivering it. It creates efficiencies at a company level, and it ultimately benefits the patients.
And, you know, together, we're, we're taking the best care that together us and our partners are taking the best care of patients that's possible.
Lori Boyer 26:31
Yeah, I love that. So a couple of things that I've heard you say that echo what I'm hearing other people just in the industry say. Partnerships. So a lot of you pharmaceuticals, a lot of you in the health care industry are kind of new to the logistics industry in a way, you know, a long time ago, everything went straight to the pharmacy.
So in the logistics industry, partnerships, relationships are so huge and so critical. So you can, so if you are, you know, an EasyPost customer, a ParcelShield customer, please don't hesitate to always reach out to your partners and the tools you're using. Talk to them when you have questions, ask about best practices.
We literally are here to help every day if you do have questions, and this industry is incredible that way, whether it is your TMS, whether you know, whatever it is you're using a lot of those partners have resources to help you on this kind of journey. But also another thing that you pointed out and that have I feel like has just really been reiterated today.
This is a, again, a high risk, high reward kind of industry. Absolutely to lower those risks to as low as possible. Technology, AI, machine learning, all of that is going to be your very best friend. Get into that now. So that as the industry continues to grow, you're going to have kind of a lower risk, high reward kind of experience.
You can lower those risks, but you have to absolutely use technology to the best that you can. Would you agree with that, John? Is that a couple of things that you're saying?
John Golden 28:06
Well said. Well said. We live it every day.
Lori Boyer 28:09
We do. Okay. I have a couple of questions that came in just from kind of our community around this. Some of them we've kind of already touched on, but I want to make sure I get to them. What best practices can smaller companies maybe implement to again, reduce those risks? So. I mean, I think that's a good question. Some people say to me, yeah, well, I wish I had enough money to buy into all this amazing technology. What, what is the minimum? How should they start?
John Golden 28:34
That's a great question. And something that we've considered as an organization as well. So obviously technology can be costly. So can lack of technology. You know, small, smaller companies that don't require as much intervention. And we talk to them all the time.
You know, there's kind of a threshold where they're like, going, we still, we still have a person that is monitoring this for us. But at some point, you've grown to a point where you have to have technology. So I'd say, I'd say, you know, consider. We've considered that as well for our potential smaller clients, and that we have a plan that includes just tracking and monitoring only. And that provides really good visibility, regardless of the carrier of where the packages at any point in the journey.
It alerts them of risk and and provides communication to the end recipient. So, you know, while we're focused on health care and pharmaceutical medications, you know, most most times we don't know what's in the box. So that means our technology works for anyone sending packages through the supply chain.
We have there are some reasonable cost options for smaller companies looking to protect themselves from shipping related risks, and, and, you know, we're happy to discuss those solutions with those that are in need.
Lori Boyer 29:44
Yeah, and I just echo that as well. As I've talked to so many people across the industry, there are a lot of programs set up where you can get, you know, maybe it comes with tools A through Z and you only need A and B and C right now.
You should be able to find those options that are free or that are very low cost, that are, but you've set yourself up kind of for a foundation for as you grow, and as this industry explodes, you can add on additional features. So don't be afraid to think like, oh, well, I shouldn't get technology at all.
I've still got Bob over here checking everything. At some point, if Bob gets overwhelmed, you know, you have some of those automation options available to you. Okay, let's talk about integration. So I do get questions around what kind of challenges can companies expect when they're trying to integrate?
Everybody has a tech stack that I feel like is so high some days. So integrations, any, any recommendations when you're trying to integrate with your other tools?
John Golden 30:38
Yeah, I think, you know, integrating new logistics technologies with existing systems can always present challenges for pharmacies and for others.
You know, systems need to talk to each other. And and that's why you know, ParcelShield can provide our customers with API connectivity. Data can flow into their current pharmacy management system and, you know, another benefit, though, of our partnership for logical customers is that EasyPost has already built a model that lets data flow from one system to another. So that solves the connectivity issue, making integration an easier lift. You know, there's other other things for technology in terms of, you know, what companies may be facing that there's implementation costs. There's resource requirements, there's training involved, but we have an implementation team that walks our customers through and and then, you know, an account management team that supports our customers.
After the fact, so they're assigned to an account to ensure success. They assist with any training or troubleshooting or suggestions for improvement. So those are, but they are some real challenges that that they, you know, companies face when they're integrating new logistics into their systems.
Lori Boyer 31:48
Yeah, for sure. And, you know, my final question was just around balancing costs and reliability. I think that's a question for everybody across the industry all the time. One of my personal tips is, you know, figure out what your service level agreement. What are you willing? How far are you willing to risk? And make sure that you're again using multiple carriers and different things where you can balance those costs.
John, do you have other tips, though, around the constant balance between cost and reliability?
John Golden 32:19
Yeah, it's a huge issue in healthcare and, you know, most of our customers are self insured. That means they assume risk for 10, 20, 30 thousand dollar medications traveling through the supply chain. And at the same time, you know, reliable delivery, it's essential for maintaining those products and making sure that the product integrity is there.
Patient safety is there and we're complying with all of our regulations. So, you know, what I'd say is. If possible, leverage predictive analytics technology tools that are available today to predict and prevent delays before those medications ever leave the facility. That's, to me that's key. If you can prevent something before you ship it, instead of during shipment, everybody wins.
If you can utilize real time monitoring for products that are in transit use on demand services to intervene or rescue a package. If something does happen to prevent expensive reships, you know, sending out a courier to rescue a 20,000 dollar medication to deliver it safely to the patient. It's pretty easily justified for both the pharmacy and the benefit of the patient when it comes to cost.
So, and the last thing I'll say is, use data and analytics for decision making, you know. Use performance metrics, look back, analyze, adjust your strategies based on those metrics to maintain the balance between between cost and quality.
Lori Boyer 33:37
Yeah, so I, I agree with that 1000%. This is absolutely an industry where you need to be proactive and not reactive. Reactive becomes incredibly costly in this industry. And my husband's medication that we've discussed. I'm sure he loves it so much, but it was a 25,000 medication. Which, thankfully, we had insurance and, you know, didn't have to pay 25,000, but it is a lot of money. And so, you do not want to be reactive when it comes to shipping and logistics.
This is an industry where you really, really need to stay ahead, be monitoring, keeping your eyes on it, and using that technology and data. Fortunately, there are a lot of options, places like ParcelShield and other tools that you can choose and use to make sure you're staying ahead. Completely agree with you on that, John.
We're out of time for today. We've covered so much. I feel like we really have a good feel on this, but do you have any other advice or tips that we may have missed? Also, you know, if people want to learn more about pharmaceutical logistics, you know, where can they go and also how can they connect with you?
John Golden 34:51
Sure, no, that's that's great. And I'll, I'll try to be brief, but I will say for final thoughts or advice, companies that are struggling with shipping challenges. Some of those can be addressed with technology. And particularly, like, we talked about predictive analytics and machine learning to avoid risk.
And when you combine that with giving recommendations for the lowest level of cost for a shipping alternative, there are solutions out there. And, you know, that solution also provides real time visibility and tracking and intervention capabilities and lots of data analytics. And and now, with the partnership with EasyPost, we can streamline the shipping label process, and that lets our customers print labels directly for FedEx, UPS, and other regional carriers directly from our platform.
So what I'd say the future's here, solutions now. Happy to discuss with you. Any of your podcast listeners, if they want to discuss with us, my contact information, johng@parcelshield.com. You can go to our website, parcelshield.com. You can request a demo there. There are some other resources that help to to provide some regulations and some recommendations around pharmacy itself.
That's going to be your National Association of Boards Pharmacies, ACHC, URAC, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, but again, parcelshield.com if you want information from me. There are blogs and there's a way to schedule a demo there. So I just want to thank you for inviting me to talk to your podcast listener. And share this news about this new, exciting partnership with EasyPost.
Lori Boyer 36:26
Really appreciate having you here. It's been really fun. Everyone again in this industry, if you are interested in, if you do pharmaceuticals, if you're interested in expanding into it, absolutely make sure that you're just doing a little bit of your due diligence and making sure that you're proactive, staying ahead, and using great partners to make sure that you're staying as secure and low risk as possible. So again, thank you, John. This was fantastic. And we are so excited to have learned from you today. Thank you. Can people connect with you on LinkedIn as well? Are you on LinkedIn?
John Golden 36:59
I am on LinkedIn. Yes. John Golden, LinkedIn ParcelShield.
Lori Boyer 37:02
Perfect. Hit him up. So we'll see you all next time.