An often-referenced fact is that the U.S. spends more money on healthcare than any other nation. Experts estimate that the cost of waste in the U.S. healthcare system range between $760 billion to $935 billion, about 25% of all spending. One area with strong potential for waste reduction is the minimization of reshipments to clinics. Reshipping medications to clinics is not just a logistical issue—it’s a matter of patient care and, in some cases, saving lives. Clinics frequently report missing or delayed shipments due to misrouting, non-delivery claims, or inconsistent inventory conditions that compromise the medication’s integrity.
The Impact of Disruptions in Critical Drug Deliveries
As healthcare evolves to become more patient-centric, clinics are becoming more agile, closer to the communities they serve, and more specialized. This is particularly true for urgent care clinics and specialty infusion centers, which operate with lean inventory models to reduce costs and maintain compliance with strict storage regulations.
The stakes of patient safety are particularly high when it comes to life-saving medications such as cancer treatments, specialty biologics, and plasma-derived therapies. If a shipment of chemotherapy drugs fails to arrive on time, a patient’s treatment may be delayed, potentially compromising outcomes. Unlike larger hospital systems that maintain more inventory on hand, many smaller clinics and specialty care providers operate with a just-in-time inventory model. This makes them heavily dependent on accurate, on-time delivery.
Errors in shipping—whether due to mislabeling, routing issues, or environmental conditions—are more than just a logistical headache; they directly impact patient care. When a shipment is lost or delayed, the typical response is to reship the order immediately. Before the replacement arrives, healthcare providers must scramble to reschedule patient appointments, causing stress and uncertainty for those in need of critical treatments.
If the original shipment arrives, it is often unusable due to expiration or compromised conditions. This leads to unnecessary waste, which has both financial and environmental implications.
The Financial and Environmental Cost of Waste
The cost of healthcare waste extends beyond dollars lost on discarded medications. It also includes environmental consequences and the ripple effects of inefficiencies throughout the supply chain. When medications are discarded due to shipping issues, they require proper hazardous waste disposal, which adds another layer of cost. Moreover, replacing lost shipments leads to increased production demand, contributing to resource depletion and higher overall healthcare costs.
For example, plasma-based therapies take months to produce and require stringent conditions for transport and storage. When these shipments are compromised, it’s not just a matter of sending a replacement; it represents a fundamental loss of time and resources. The manufacturing process for such treatments cannot simply be expedited—as complex biological production processes take time and precision.
Addressing Waste Risks Throughout the Supply Chain
One of the key strategies for minimizing waste from reshipments is improving visibility into shipment location, asset condition, and on-time delivery status. For medications, vaccines, and other medical treatment products, maintaining a stable, compliant environment is critical. Yet, even when shipments are packaged with proper handling in mind, unexpected delays may render them unusable. Consider this example: a package designed for a 48-hour shipment window encounters a delay due to rerouting or misdelivery. Even if the medication arrives intact, its efficacy may be compromised.
Clinic operators and their shipping partners must work together to review their current Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for handling medications safely throughout the supply chain. A thorough review of capabilities and practices within their organizations should include:
- Evaluating the speed and accuracy of existing tracking capabilities.
- Documenting the process for decision makers within the organization to determine the safety and efficacy of delivered medications.
- Reviewing the mechanisms that trigger alerts to appropriate stakeholders when a deviation occurs.
- Assessing current processes for proactively rescheduling patient appointments, transferring available inventory between clinic locations, and ordering replacements before the situation becomes an emergency.
Minimizing reshipments to clinics is not just about cutting costs; it’s about improving patient care, reducing environmental impact, and optimizing healthcare logistics. In a time where healthcare resources are more costly than ever, taking proactive steps to ensure shipment accuracy is an investment in both financial sustainability and better patient outcomes. The goal should always be to create a supply chain that is as reliable as the care clinics strive to provide—because when it comes to patient health, there is no room for error.
About Guy Yehiav
Guy Yehiav is the President of SmartSense by Digi. He is a recognized thought leader in retail, CPG, supply chain, and complex manufacturing with a proven track record of success in M&A, Customer Success, B2B enterprise software solutions, SaaS metrics, and AI & IoT solutions. Guy most recently served as the GM and VP of Zebra Analytics. He strategized, developed and delivered the overall AI, machine learning, and analytics strategy by driving M&A and the development of enterprise solutions.
