subject: Shipping Medical Cargo During Hot Weather [print this page] Medical material is very easily damaged by heat. Therefore, when it is especially hot outside, there can be concerns about the shipping of medical material that don't appear during other days, or during the winter. That is why before you ship medical materials with your Chicago courier service, it's important that you think about, and plan for, the challenges of hot weather shipping of this type of cargo.
Almost every kind of medical material that gets shipped is vulnerable to heat. Blood, for instance, if stored in temperatures above what it should be can quickly become completely unusable. Samples which may be getting sent to a lab for testing which consist of any biological material can become damaged in the heat and yield no valid test results. Organs which are being moved for transplant purposes have to be kept at a very specific temperature in order to still be viable for transplant. Even pharmaceutical products and drugs can spoil very quickly if they are exposed to too much heat.
When shipping in the heat, it is important that all of the medical products are properly packaged. Primarily, this is a matter of insulation. When you make sure that properly insulated containers are used for all the products, it means that you don't have to worry about the time it takes to move goods in and out of vehicle in the heat. Without proper insulation and coolers though, even that brief exposure can be enough to cause damage to the goods.
Another thing you have to think about is the courier itself. You want a courier that takes steps to make sure that the goods aren't outside any more than they have to be. Ask about their delivery practices and transfer procedures for these types of goods. Finding a courier that follows all established best practices in this field can help make sure that nothing bad happens to the medical material that your clients are counting on you to ship to them in good condition.
It is impossible to overstate how important it is to take all the measures possible to keep this type of cargo out of the heat. These are orders and cargo which people's lives may actually depend on. There is no such thing as taking too much time and effort to prepare these types of shipments, as the level of care that actual patients may receive could be based on that preparation.
