REDMOND, Ore. – ParcelShield, a health care technology company that develops high-performance parcel management solutions for specialty pharmacies, today announced the launch of a new product called ParcelShield Tracker, a Parcel Intelligence & Monitoring service, that provides critical package monitoring and patient communication for USPS packages every step of the way.

From the pharmacy’s loading dock to a patient’s door, ParcelShield Tracker uses automated predictive analytics, machine learning, and Weather Farm statistical modeling to track packages that pharmacies ship via USPS. Delays or disruptions trigger phone calls or text messages to patients to keep them informed throughout the package’s journey. This improves patient satisfaction through proactive communication and reduces pharmacy costs by preventing calls from patients inquiring about the status of their delayed order.

“Home delivery of prescriptions is not new, but what is new is keeping close tabs on packages from the pharmacy until they reach patients’ homes, updating the patient proactively if there is a delay and providing them options if the delay will create a hardship or interruption in their therapy. An informed patient and pharmacy can take action, such as requesting an emergency fill at a local pharmacy, if they know their medication will not arrive on time. This is more important than ever, now that the postal service is experiencing a surge in demand due to COVID-19,” said CEO Guillermo Sollberger. “With ParcelShield Tracker, patients get better outcomes and pharmacies safeguard revenue. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

In the past, patients accepted the fact that medications delivered via USPS would often take longer to get to them with little communication along the way. ParcelShield Tracker changes this. By monitoring each package and notifying the patient at various trigger points in the package journey, patients know when to expect their medication and are notified if that expectation changes.

The National Association of Letter Carriers reported earlier this year that the Postal Service manages 1.2 billion prescription drug shipments a year — or about 4 million each day, six days a week. That number has only grown during the coronavirus pandemic. What’s more through data and analytics ParcelShield has seen the percentage of orders that arrived after the USPS estimated delivery date increased nearly threefold, from 8.5% of prescription orders in February to 22 percent of prescription orders in July.

In addition to ParcelShield Tracker, ParcelShield offers end-to-end intelligent parcel protection from tracking to intervention to rescue, for packages shipped with non-USPS carriers.