How AllyGPO broke the mold to improve medication management, storage, and tracking.
The Challenge
Creating a hardware solution to solve a software-related problem
AllyGPO supports independent specialty providers serving their local patient communities by raising the bar on service, collaboration, and performance. Its vision calls for ushering in a new era of productivity and growth for specialty community practices so that they can continue to care for patients their way.
Medication storage solutions – a key part of that care – have traditionally functioned in unintuitive ways, causing user errors compromising security and inventory tracking. Product research identified pain points and suggested design requirements addressing those shortcomings. The clear challenge was changing the locker itself.
The goal required fresh thinking: Create a new way of storing, categorizing, and distributing cancer treatment drugs, which had been treated as a commodity.
In the misguided interest of saving time and effort, many clinics would leave their smart cabinet doors unlocked, rendering their tech-enabled storage features useless. When such medications get moved without the accompanying software updates, existing systems cannot track their location. This would then lead to frustration when staff needed to find medications in a hurry.
“These critical medications deserved a higher level of attention and tracking, so that healthcare professionals could have peace of mind in their treatment protocols.”
Our Solution
Blending mechanical, hardware, and firmware expertise to create a leap forward in medication storage performance
Goods & Services quickly understood that solving the issue of unreliable and delayed retrieval of medications required looking at it from a different perspective. The old way of tracking medication wasn’t working, so what alternatives presented a better solution? The answer came in developing a locker where the bins themselves – each dedicated to a singular medication – would be tracked, rather than individual medications mixed together in shared bins.
Working in close partnership with AllyGPO, the Goods & Services team created functional prototypes to test drawer systems, using 3-D printed trays and visuals to confirm the design’s mechanics and functionality. Next came the design of a modular bin system grounded in a mathematical grid, enabling multiple configurations without hardware modifications. The electrical design was built for cost-effective and accurate bin tracking, including LED wayfinding lighting to guide users directly to the correct medication bin, simplifying and streamlining the process.
Creating this clean, high-functioning innovation required enormous precision from Goods & Services and its top-tier manufacturing partners to ensure accuracy in every component.
“Our relationship with the Goods & Services team demonstrated their ability and eagerness to listen, collaborate, and coordinate multiple resources to arrive at a successful end product.”
The Impact
Smarter, simpler, safer – to the benefit of oncology staff and patients
By approaching a problem from a direction no one else had considered, Goods & Services has given AllyGPO a clear advantage in the medication inventory marketplace. The AllyIQ Medical Locker combines intuitive design and innovative features to truly transform medication workflows, particularly across oncology centers.
Its full-extension doors and shelves allow for easy medication access without awkward leaning or reaching. Smart bin tracking automatically updates medication location when bins are moved, eliminating manual updates and user frustration. Wayfinding LED lights guide users to the correct bin instantly, eliminating delays. Focusing on the bins leads to more accurate tracking of medication inventory, improves restocking efficiency, and generates reliable data for purchasing. A vertical drawer layout, soft-close sides, and warm blue exterior provide a quiet, calming presence in hectic clinical environments.
AllyGPO’s cabinet does so much more than simply offer a place to lock medications. It has proven to streamline workflows, reduce human error, and save valuable time for nurses and techs – all of which improve the quality of treatment provided to cancer patients.
“The improvements in time saved, ease of locating medications, and reliably serving patient care needs have already been demonstrated through the use of the AllyGPO locker.”
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