UK-Based Pharmacy Scales Business by 25% and Reduces Planning From Days to Minutes

Saved £3,000 monthly by cutting delivery costs, miles traveled and repeat orders

Using 5 week planning reduced delivery scheduling efforts from days to just a few hours

Scaled number of deliveries by 25% even with 2 drivers less than usual

Created an audit trail suitable for NHS supervision of controlled medication.

Headquartered in Bradford, Biomed Care Services have established themselves as a specialist pharmacy that focuses on providing in-house medicinal management services to private and NHS patients in care homes, residential homes, domiciliary patients but also private hospitals. 

Sajid Khan, their managing director, explains that their business is centered on client relationships built over years. However, what makes them successful comes down to two main factors: reliability and accountability. 

Route Optimization Scaled Business, Reduced Miles Driven and Gas Costs 

The Bradford-based pharmacy has 25 full-time employees which effectively manage 28 days worth of medical supplies for patents across the north of the UK. These range from antibiotics, daily medication and even controlled medication like morphine. As Sajid explains, their deliveries are divided into two categories; acute and monthlies.

Using OptimoRoute, BioMed Care services were able to cut costs and effectively scale their business even with a 33% reduction in manpower. In terms of monthly savings, Sajid states that in total today they save as much as £3,000 just by using OptimoRoute. 

“Before using OptimoRoute, we had designated drivers taking care of all care homes in a specific postcode (zip code). What happened was we had drivers overlapping routes but only delivering to their postcode’s designated care homes. This created substantial losses since one driver could easily make a delivery to a care home they passed along the way.”

Noticing that the situation was causing their drivers to drive around often unnecessarily, Sajid started looking at routing and scheduling solutions that would allow them to increase their efficiency.  

One specific feature of OptimoRoute further reduced their costs.  

“In the notes section, we put down exactly what we deliver to a care home. We sometimes get calls asking if some items were not delivered. What we are able to do is have a record of items delivered, what day they were delivered and we can match that to the physical signature collected in person that day.”

As Sajid explains, prior to using OptimoRoute they would often have to repeat orders because a client would state that a patient didn’t get his meds. As a result they would have to send out repeat orders at a loss to their business. With OptimoRoute they were able to reduce the number of incomplete or repeat orders to zero. 

Scaling the Business With a Reduced Number of Available Drivers 

Soon after he also had to deal with a reduced number of drivers. However, with OptimoRoute he was able to scale their daily deliveries from an average of 30 to around 40 daily with only four drivers. 

“With OptimoRoute we have increased orders by about 25%, even with a reduced number of drivers. We started with six drivers and since then two left us. We were able to scale even with the reduced number”.

Using OptimoRoute, Sajid reduced the number of hours it took to plan routes from several days to just a few hours. In fact, the company now plans their deliveries 5 weeks in advance leaving them room for last-minute daily deliveries. 

Better Accountability and Digital Records Created a Reliable Audit Trail 

However, BioMed Care services soon started seeing improvements in other areas of their business. Keeping accurate records of deliveries and having full accountability also increased efficiency for the company. 

Furthermore, the ability to keep detailed records available at a moment’s notice and have that match their offline records allowed them to create a fully accountable audit trail in rare cases of NHS supervision of controlled medication.  

“With OptimoRoute we have created an audit trail from beginning to end. For instance, we send a lot of controlled drugs to care homes such as morphine. In the unfortunate case of a patient passing away, we are able to go back to any date and determine exactly when their last dose was delivered. Something the authorities frequently ask us to do”. 

Finding a fully compatible software that would deal with all the variables required for pharmacy delivery was their biggest challenge. In fact, prior to finding OptimoRoute, Sajid had piloted three other software alternatives on the market. 

“We looked at other software for routing before, but what we saw was that a lot of them are focused for the logistics market and heavy vehicles. The software just wasn’t a good fit. There was nothing adaptable or agile enough for a pharmacy business. Our main reason for using OptimoRoute was that we could tailor the software to our needs.”