Arrive working with Indiana hospitals to improve efficiency, safety, and security – including Good Samaritan

Arrive, the global market leader in the smart mailbox space, is working with Good Samaritan in Vincennes, Ind., and Community Health Network in central Indiana to pilot the use of its Mailbox-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform and will demonstrate its use at both facilities in early November.

The Arrive team will collaborate with autonomous ground robotics provider Ottonomy for the demonstrations that will involve moving a package representing a medical sample via drone miles away from each hospital. The drone will drop the samples into an Arrive smart mailbox outside the hospitals. The sample will be retrieved by a ground robot that will transport the package inside the facilities, to an elevator and directly to its final end user.

The demonstration is believed to be the first of its kind. The company says this helps illustrate the value of bringing MaaS to the $75 billion diagnostic and medical laboratory industry and the $3.6 trillion hospital industry.

"We are very pleased to be working with innovation-focused healthcare executives to showcase just how transformational an autonomous delivery system can be,” said Arrive President and CEO Dan O’Toole. “The use-cases go far beyond what I had originally envisioned for these devices.”

Companies in remote parts of the world have been using drones to deliver medicine and supplies to patients in need. Zipline and Michigan Medicine are partnering to provide free drone delivery of prescription medicine next year. Some hospitals rely on robots to deliver medications from hospital pharmacies to nurses. Aerial and ground robotics are increasingly being considered for last-mile delivery options by many organizations.

But what Arrive and Good Samaritan are doing is transforming the healthcare supply chains of how medicines, samples, and other items are moved between labs, clinics, and healthcare offices to improve processes and patient outcomes.

“We are thrilled to be on the cutting edge of innovation” said Good Samaritan Chief Operating Officer, Adam Thacker. “This technology will allow us to provide efficient, timely care while also providing some relief to our most precious resource: our people.”

Good Samaritan, located in the city of Vincennes, operates more than two dozen facilities in southwestern Indiana and employs seven full-time drivers who currently make deliveries among those facilities, some near the hospital campus but some as far as 75 miles away. Thacker said this pilot project with Arrive will enable him to determine how autonomous delivery could bring efficiencies and improve service delivery.

The Arrive MaaS platform leverages breakthrough technology in automation and AI to deliver both cost-savings and service improvements. The company’s smart and secure mailboxes provide safe, climate-assisted space for pick-ups and deliveries of all types with access by authorized users only.

"We are continually searching for ways to increase efficiencies and improve patient outcomes, so we are extremely interested in learning more about innovations like Arrive's MaaS platform. We see enormous potential and hope to have units on campus soon,” said Dr. Patrick McGill, Community Health Network executive vice president and chief transformation officer.