Online bookings for home blood draws are clustered into optimized courier routes with WhatsApp time-window confirmations to patients. Barcode scans at the draw and at lab drop-off keep an unbroken chain of custody, and couriers now complete 40% more visits daily.
Typical results
92%
Arrivals within promised window
0
Samples unaccounted for
10 min
Daily route planning
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Dispatch was a wall map and a spreadsheet. A coordinator hand-built each courier's day, so routes zigzagged across the city and couriers averaged ten draws a day. Patients got vague "sometime this morning" windows and weren't home, and when a lab asked which courier carried a sample, the answer lived in someone's memory.
Before and after
Draws per courier per day
+40%Route planning time
−89%Failed visits per week
−78%The automation
We built a dispatch engine in Make that pulls the day's online bookings, clusters them by geography and time window, and generates an optimized route per courier each evening. Patients get a WhatsApp confirmation with a tight arrival window and a morning-of reminder. Every tube carries a barcode scanned at the draw and again at lab intake, giving each sample a time-stamped chain of custody — and a missing scan alerts dispatch immediately.
How it works
- 01
Booking lands
A patient books a home draw online; address, tests, and preferred window log automatically.
- 02
Routes optimized
Each evening, bookings cluster by geography and time window into an optimized route per courier.
- 03
Patient confirmed
A WhatsApp confirmation delivers a tight arrival window, with a reminder on the morning of the visit.
- 04
Scan at the draw
The courier scans the tube barcode at the patient's door, time-stamping the sample against the booking.
- 05
Custody closed at the lab
A second scan at lab intake closes the chain of custody; a missing scan alerts dispatch immediately.
Starts from
- Online bookings
- Patient addresses
Delivers
- Optimized courier routes
- Time-window confirmations
- Chain-of-custody scans
The impact
Couriers typically complete 14 draws a day instead of ten — 40% more per shift — and about 92% of visits start inside the promised window. Failed visits drop from nine a week to two, route planning takes ten minutes, and every sample stays accounted for.
Questions about this automation
How are courier routes built each day?
Every evening, the automation in Make pulls the next day's online bookings with addresses, tests and preferred windows. It clusters them by area and time window and builds an ordered route for each courier. A dispatcher can review and adjust the routes before they are sent to the couriers' phones.
How are patients told when the courier will arrive?
Once routes are set, each patient receives a WhatsApp confirmation with a narrow arrival window, followed by a reminder on the morning of the visit. Patients can reply to reschedule, and the change is flagged to dispatch so the route can be updated before the courier heads out.
How does barcode scanning protect the chain of custody?
Each tube's barcode is scanned at the patient's door and again at lab intake, time-stamping the sample against the booking and the courier. A sample scanned at the draw but missing at the lab alerts dispatch immediately. This is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages, starting with routing and confirmations.