Courier services

Scheduled ground courier services

  • Two routine daily pickups with package tracking may be available for established clients within the metro area
  • Lock boxes are available for after-hours specimen retrieval
  • Your Account Representative will provide you with your individual courier schedule

 

On-demand/On-request ground courier services

  • Clients who do not need regularly scheduled pickups can be set up for on-demand/on-request pickups
  • Call Client Services at (612) 863-4678 to arrange for pick-up
  • Allina Health Laboratory cannot provide On-demand/On-request courier services for specimens that are to be passed through AHL to an alternate testing laboratory
  • Lock boxes are available for after-hours specimen retrieval
  • Your Account Representative will provide you with your individual courier schedule

 

Extreme weather conditions (road conditions, cold and heat)

Winter weather courier services

Our couriers will do everything in their power to perform each scheduled pick up as close to on time as possible. Please be aware that, for the safety of our drivers, road conditions may cause them to be delayed.

If the Department of Transportation closes roads, or if a route is deemed hazardous to a driver, they will be pulled from their routes. Although our primary goal is care of our patients, we need to balance this with the safety of the couriers. We will attempt to notify each client that is affected due to a courier delay or cancellation as timely as possible.

In the event of a courier cancellation please store specimens appropriately until your next available courier pick up.


Lock boxes and extreme temperatures

If your site utilizes a lock box to store specimens prior to transport to Allina Health Laboratory, please note that when a lock box is exposed to the elements, the insulation is not sufficient to protect specimens during extreme weather conditions. It is optimal to have the lockbox located in a protected area.

  • If your lock box is located outside of your building, in order to protect specimen integrity, the lockbox should not be used if the temperatures are below zero (0°F).
  • If the temperatures are below zero (0°F), rather than place the specimens in your lock box, they must be given directly to a courier to be placed in the appropriate temperature for transport.
  • If you are unable to wait for the driver, and the specimens can not be held until your next direct courier pickup, an unscheduled courier pickup should be arranged.


This does not apply to lock boxes that are located within a building, protected from outdoor temperatures. 

For additional information regarding lock box use, refer to the Instructions for courier lock box use.

RUSH Courier Services

Allina Health Laboratory offers unscheduled (Rush) courier service at a charge.

If your scheduled or an On-Demand/On-request pick up does not meet your needs, or if you are calling after your designated time, outreach clients may call our Client Services department at (612) 863-4678 Option 1, or (800) 281-4379, Mon – Fri (7am – 7pm) to request a Rush pick up. If you prefer, you may also call your own courier to transport your specimen to the Central Laboratory. All Allina Health sites should place the request for unscheduled pickups directly with MedSpeed.

If you request a rush courier service through Allina Health Laboratory, we will contact MedSpeed courier service to request a pick up for your specimens. Based on your needs and location, we can help determine expidited delivery service options available with a turnaround time that may fall within a range of 2.5-5 hours. The charge for this pick up will be tiered pricing dependent on your location and will be billed back to you on your monthly invoice.

RUSH courier service for weekend or holiday stats, or stats prior to 7am and after 7pm should be called directly to your own courier service.

MedSpeed contact number: 888-256-9686

Getting to Allina Health Laboratory Central Lab (shipping and receiving, docks, administration)

The Central Laboratory is located on the second floor in the 10th Avenue Facility. This building is located between Abbott Northwestern Hospital to the north and the Allina Commons to the south.

 

 

 

 

 

Shipping of Specimens

Allina Health Laboratory will not be responsible for the shipping charges incurred when sending specimens from your facility. For your convenience, we will provide the FedEx air bill and clinical pak, as well appropriate internal packaging materials to your facility, but we will require that the shipping charges be applied to your Fed Ex account. The FedEx air bills you receive from Allina Health Laboratory will be preprinted with our address and payment indicated to be billed to sender. You will need to add your FedEx account number to the air bill.

If you prefer, you may choose to use an alternate overnight delivery service of your choice, but please remember to follow the current procedure and to fax a copy of the air bill along with a copy of the completed requisition to Allina Health Laboratory Client Services at (612) 863-4067. This will allow us to effectively track your specimens and expedite processing of these specimens.

If you choose to use a delivery service other than FedEx please address the package as follows:

Allina Health Laboratory Specimen Management
2800 10th Ave S, Ste. 2000
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Phone (612) 863-4678

Any charges for shipping specimens from your facility to Allina Health Laboratory that are applied to the Allina Health Laboratory FedEx account for shipping services will be billed back to your facility.

How to package and ship from remote collection locations