Taking the pulse on sensitive health-care shipments into Canada

This is the second in a series around delivering healthcare to Canada. The first focused on the need for speed and efficiency despite the country’s vast geography.

We know that roughly eight out of 10 medical products used in Canada in support of patient care are imported into the country. This consistent trend in health-care shipping points to the fact that the vast majority of companies are opting to service Canadian institutions from outside the country.

For many, it makes greater business sense not to have every product available in Canadian warehouses, but instead ship them northbound directly to the end users from the U.S. Yet with the escalating trend of nearshoring, this is increasingly evolving to include shipments directly from Mexico as well. (Some estimates suggest that nearshoring overall will translate into $106 billion in operational investments into Mexico over the next few years.)

For companies in the business of developing health-care solutions, this means solidifying or expanding a northbound shipping lane into Canada, one that is as efficient as possible to meet the needs of Canadian health-care practitioners and their patients. In an industry that relies on high levels of product quality, low inventory levels, and speed-to-patient, it’s important to have a seamless solution to enter Canada from Mexico and the US as fast as possible.

In the delivery of health care, time is of the essence.

A customized solution with speed, expertise and visibility

At Purolator, we serve many customers whose products go direct from a U.S. or Mexico facility straight to an end customer in Canada. To reduce touchpoints, we consolidate packages and get them set for a single customs clearance – after which they reach distribution hubs close to the U.S.-Canada border. One such hub is in Toronto where our teams manage packages sent from any U.S. city within 800 miles and are able to perform next-day service to customers across Canada.

Now, depending on how Health Canada has classified a product, some are not permitted to ship from an international location directly to the customer or patient. These select products must instead be processed inside Canada, meaning that them – as well as medical products that are used in urgent situations – warehouses come into play north of the border.

Our northbound solution is designed to consolidate multiple modes (LTL and courier) into one cross-border move. In this way, any shipment could combine individual customer or patient products with inventory transfers – thereby boosting efficiency and speed. This direct induction model also enables companies to ultimately reduce the amount of Canadian warehouses needed by minimizing the inventory they need to preserve in Canada.

When housing primary health-care inventory outside of Canada, a backup plan that offers reliability and stability is necessary to meet any urgent product needs by customers. Through Purolator’s Mission Critical program, we connect you to all Canadian facilities or directly to end-users with a next-flight-out service from anywhere in the world.

Key solutions in a shipping partner

For companies seeking a partner to deliver health-care shipments northbound into Canada, I offer a checklist on the elements that will ensure this relationship stays steady and maintains that reliability well into the future:

• Seek a shipping partner willing to customize a solution rather than force you into their standard network.
• For border crossings, it’s ideal for a shipping partner to have a reliable freight forwarding model that integrates customs clearance.
• In Canada, that partner should have as wide a reach as possible – ideally, nationally. The more regional carriers in the picture, the more handoffs occur, risking delays and lack of coordination.
• They must have an up-to-date and deep understanding of Canadian requirements around all types of medical and health-care products including Health Canada’s GUI-0069.
• Partners should have a digitally enabled service level customized for critical healthcare products so that these time-sensitive packages are prioritized within comingled networks.
• End-to-end visibility on these important packages is a must for all customers involved.
• Ensure they have sales professionals with expertise in the health-care industry, and that their work with operations and product development teams is seamless (vs. siloed). The more people with health-care backgrounds on staff, the better.

- By Jason Hern, General Manager, Healthcare, Purolator