December 8, 2021 – The use of UAS (Unmanned Aviation Systems) for commercial medical transport in the U.S. is on the verge of taking off. Today in the United States, Matternet is already working with health systems to operate reliable drone networks for critical medical deliveries.
As supply chain executives build or expand their distribution brick and mortar infrastructure, what do they need to take into consideration to accommodate drone deliveries? Medical deliveries by drones will typically fall into two categories:
1. Intra-campus and inter-facility movement of critical medical supplies within the health system’s network. This could include blood samples flown from free-standing Emergency Rooms to a centralized laboratory to facilitate faster lab test results for patients.
Today, drones are delivering COVID-19 vaccines from a central hospital pharmacy to an off-site vaccine administration site at Wake Forest Baptist Health (2).
2. Re-supply and redistribution from external suppliers. Health systems will receive commercial drone shipments from vendors and distributors to their distribution centers or directly to the point of patient care.
In this scenario, a regional manufacturer of site-specific tissue called ECM’s (Extracellular Matrices) will use drones to provide a new type of “Just in Time” delivery…directly to an off-site Ambulatory Surgery Center. These patient specific deliveries will allow better treatment customization, which will improve patient outcomes. Health systems will have less money tied up in on-hand surgical inventory and worries about product expiration dates will be reduced.
When Bill Moir, Vice-President of Supply Chain at Henry Ford Health System, considered the construction of his new distribution center, he took into account deliveries via drone and purposefully…