subject: Medical Shipping: What Does Stat Mean? [print this page] If you've ever watched a medical drama on TV, then you've undoubtedly seen some harried looking doctor run by demanding that someone do something STAT. This is a term that is actually used in the real world as well, and is common parlance within every element of the medical industry. This includes the medical shipping industry. Messenger services in Chicago that deal with medical materials during the course of their business will sometimes offer a specific immediate service.
STAT is derived from a Latin term. Much of medical terminology has its roots in the Latin language. The original term was Statim, which means immediately. That is the essence of the term as it is used in the medical community today. When something is to be done in this manner, it means that it must be done without delay, as fast as it is humanly possible to do so.
This term is obviously used a great deal in medicine, because when people's lives hang in the balance, there is simply no time to waste. There are many times when a delivery needs to be made immediately. Emergency situations where there may be shortages of blood or supplies obviously require these types of deliveries deliveries. Also, organs being shipped for transplant may be shipped using this kind of service, a situation in which there is clearly no time to waste.
This type of service couriers are a special branch of the medical courier industry that is always ready and poised to make a delivery as fast as they are possibly able to do so. This means that they will have drivers and vehicles waiting in reserve to make those deliveries when the requests come in. That way, there is no delay whatsoever in between the request coming and the actual delivery process beginning.
A courier that provides this type of service may rely on more than one type of vehicle as well. Normally, this urgent service is going to be completed using the same types of vehicles which are used to make the majority of deliveries, ground based vans and trucks. In the case of this service though, these will be refrigerated units for transporting medical material which would otherwise spoil. Helicopters are also a part of many emergency networks of delivery companies though. This provides a much faster option for shipping when lives truly are hanging on the timeframe of the delivery. The largest hospitals in the world are often equipped with helicopter landing facilities for just such purposes.
