Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Intermountain Healthcare drone delivery will work to deliver prescriptions to patients’ homes. Intermountain is hopeful deliveries will begin this July.
Carrie Dunford, Intermountain‘s chief pharmacy officer, told Dave and Dujanovic that it will evaluate what prescriptions meet the criteria for delivery. She said Intermountain is considering prescriptions such as expensive medications and those that need to be delivered within a timely matter.
“The drones stays pretty high in the air,” Dunford says. “At this time, the drone does drop the box with a parachute. It’s not anything where the [drone] swoops down in your front yard. You just have to catch a parachute product in a box.”
With this new system, Dunford said, Intermountain patients can track their orders and coordinate when deliveries should happen. Patients will be able to say when they are ready to receive their orders.
“One thing that is really important to us making sure that the right patient gets the right drug at the right time,” she says. “These tracking devices allow us to make sure that you’re ready for the delivery and that you’re ready to receive it and that we can make sure you get the drug.”
Dunford says that the drones will help patients who feel too ill to pick up their medications in person, as well as help COVID-19 patients who are isolating themselves.