Ensure Medical Specimens Don't Get Lost

The problem

Normally courier services are nothing special, delivering everyday items such as documents and online purchases. If a package is late or it gets misdirected, the most usual reaction is vexation.

When medical specimens are transported, however, lives are affected. Any glitches can result in delayed diagnoses that could spell the difference between life and death.

Certifying that specimens get from hospital to lab is the heady responsibility of Stover Medical Support Services in O’Fallon, Missouri, some 34 miles west of St. Louis. The privately held, full-service medical support company’s services include mobile phlebotomy, drug testing, medical staffing and billing.

Because transporting hospital specimens safely to medical labs has immense health ramifications, Stover trains its couriers in all areas of specimen transport including daily route operations, specimen handling requirements and client relations. In addition they receive specialized training in biological spills and biohazard waste disposal procedures, and all vehicles used for transportation contain “spill kits” for safe cleanup.

“We take extreme precautions to ensure hospital specimens reach their destinations in pristine condition,” says Matt Stover, CEO of Stover Medical Support Services. “Still, all our precautions can be wasted if an airline loses the package. What we needed was a foolproof solution to ensure that never happens.”

The LiveViewGPS solution

One obvious solution was GPS tracking, but which solution provider was the best choice?

“We’ve been aware of LiveViewGPS for some time,” says Stover. “So when we researched GPS solutions on the Internet they were one of the companies we evaluated. When I realized they had the best products for our needs, we purchased their Live Trac PT-10 GPS trackers, which our couriers include in each package so we always know the specimen’s location.”

Live Trac PT-10 GPS Series Trackers are small, highly accurate, easy-to-use portable units. Their powerful magnets let users quickly attach the devices to vehicles and start tracking immediately. Since Stover Medical Support Services has no need for the magnets, their couriers remove them before inserting the trackers into the packages.

Because Live Trac PT-10 Series Trackers are battery operated, LiveViewGPS uses motion activation to prolong battery life. Whenever a vehicle moves faster than 10 mph, the battery activates. Once activated, the ultra-fast vehicle tracking updates its location every 20 feet or every 10 seconds for pinpoint accuracy.

The portable tracking devices are available in four battery sizes: Standard (8 motion hours), Pro (70 motion hours), Pro-Plus (100 motion hours) and PT-100 (130 motion hours).

Live Trac PT-10 GPS Series Trackers operate on LiveViewGPS’s exclusive Live Trac Platform that delivers real-time, 100% web-based GPS tracking that’s assessable from any web browser or any web-enabled mobile device. No software is required. The Live Trac system automatically issues alerts (e.g., when a vehicle goes outside a designated area, or exceeds posted speeds) and generates reports that provide detailed snapshots of drivers and vehicles in the field. Reports include start/stop, vapor trail, route alerts, mileage, aggressive driving, excessive idling and more. No monthly contract is required.

The benefits

“With Live Trac PT-10 GPS trackers in every package, we always know exactly where each specimen is,” Stover asserts. “When a package lands, our courier is already there waiting to take it to a testing lab. Even if the airline doesn’t know where the package is, we do.

“Though careful training, attention to detail and technology like Live Track PT-10 GPS trackers, we’ve built an enviable reputation for reliability and professional service. We never forget that people’s lives are literally in our hands”