Medical or healthcare couriers are a specialized type of position in a business which has been in existence for many years. The courier industry has played an important role in the United States healthcare industry and commerce overall. Wells Fargo was founded in 1852 and rapidly became the preeminent package delivery company. They specialized in shipping gold, packages and newspapers throughout the West. Shortly afterward, the Pony Express was established to move packages more quickly than the traditional stagecoach routes. It also illustrated the demand for timely deliveries across the nation, a concept that continued to evolve with the railroads, automobiles and interstate highways which have emerged into today’s courier industry.
Today, world-wide companies such as FedEx and UPS make up a large percentage of the courier business, and these companies do sometimes carry medical specimens. The remaining courier companies tend to be smaller businesses that specialize as medical couriers that may be found in healthcare. Additionally, some hospitals and healthcare systems have their own internal courier system and therefore, employ their own couriers.
Medical couriers are an important group of employees who serve as the face of your employer’s business. The quality of a courier service and its staff can define the perception of the quality and accuracy of your employer’s business. The image presented by you is the image of your organization that is seen by your clients. It is vital that you understand the importance of your work as a courier to your employer, the clients and ultimately the patient. As a courier service, your employer’s mission is to provide you with the knowledge and training of your job and to educate you to serves as the intermediary between the client and the laboratory. You are responsible for protecting the integrity of the specimens that you handle in your daily work.
