Home healthcare continues to expand as more economically favorable option to hospital stays. A recent Grand View Research study reported that the global home healthcare market was valued at $244.4 billion in 2015, predicting a healthy 7.8% Compound Annual Growth Rate to 2025.
GVR noted, “Treatment cost for an acute care hospital is around $3,250 per day. On the contrary, home care cost is approximately $50 per day.”
The healthcare packaging community is well aware of this movement, evidenced by the continued development of drug delivery devices such as autoinjectors, prefilled pens, and applicators that enable self-administration of medications. As demonstrated by the innovative Pharmapack Europe Award winners, these devices are designed in some instances specifically for aging patients struggling with dexterity and other health issues.
Beyond patient-centric design, smart packaging and healthcare logistical services also strive to help caregivers. To that end, the UPS Store and Marken announced the launch of a new option that will allow nurses to drop off clinical trial samples at approximately 4,600 U.S. UPS Store® locations.
“This expanded service is a direct result of the exponential growth of home-based clinical trials in the past few years,” according to a press release announcing the option. “The UPS Store and Marken are subsidiaries of UPS, and provide patients and nurses greater flexibility and convenience for home care.”
Jeff Giboney, VP of The UPS Store Corporate Retail Solutions, noted, “Through providing convenient locations for drop-offs. … we give people one less thing to worry about during a trying time. The UPS Store has an expansive network that will make it possible for Marken to reach more customers than ever before.”
The press release said, “Approximately 84% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a UPS Store location. The UPS Store locations have the capability to handle pre-packed, pre-paid shipments with samples that require dry ice. The UPS Store can offer UPS Next Day Air® service, early morning delivery to the central and regional labs from many origins.”
Marken will manage the booking of shipments with UPS in order to ensure protocol compliance, patient data blinding and data encryption, which are required for clinical trials. Wes Wheeler, Marken’s CEO, said, “As the clinical trial industry moves toward more personalized treatments, Marken is ensuring our services evolve for these more complex and specialized trials. This new drop-off solution will allow nurses to take specimens directly to one of the closest UPS Store centers and enable fast delivery to our central lab client locations for rapid analysis. Given our new ownership by UPS, we are now able to leverage their vast network and the thousands of daily flights each day to all parts of the U.S.”
