Fed Ex, WTF is your deal...

[mtnjam]

So lets just say, I rely on Fed Ex to get us shipments of radionuclides delivered to our hospital for imaging and therapeutic procedures. I am a nuclear med tech and my job relies on getting these doses for these procedures.

For the last, at least, month there have been nothing but problems getting these doses delivered to us. We call the Fed Ex reps and they give us the usual "canned" answer that there are scanning issues. So the radioactive doses are just sitting in some Fed Ex warehouse for a while and delivered to us late or the next day when the radioactivity has decayed to an unusable level (expired).

I find it hard to believe that Fed Ex can't deliver radioactive doses in a timely manner, but can get other shipments out ASAP with no issues.

So much for next day or overnight delivery. As much money as we spend to ship this stuff you'd think they'd be able to pull their heads out of their collective asses and come up with a better solution.

Does anybody from the collective have an answer for me other than using a different company...which I don't think is possible.

[crackboy]

that should be the responsibility of the seller not you. i have never had an issue get radioactive stuff delivered in a timely manner. usually takes 2 days and thats with going through our rad dpeartment for survey etc

[mtnjam]

Where you at, nuc med tech too?

[crackboy]

researcher at U. Pitt.

[RShea]

You state using another company is probably not an option, why? What is the reason to not try UPS?

[Todds]

Call the seller. Are they having problems delivering to other customers?

Where is the package getting stuck (Memphis, at sellers fedex office, at your fedex office)?

Why can't you use UPS or USPS?

Is the radioactive package setting off some alarm inside Fedex? Is there some special marking that needs to be on the box?

[crackboy]

my guess is that it is getting stuck being surveyed etc in holding which in turn makes it sit.

typically radiactive material is sent in a lead egg or othe containment so it doesn't give off anything. but there are protocols to be followed. so this is most definitely the shippers responsibility. my bet would be mislabling or all the i's and t's not being crossed and dotted

[Caucasian Asian]

Unless it's going across the country, we don't bother shipping any of our nuclear densometers. We just have one of our employees transport them in person, so that there are no issues like you're describing.

That way if I need a gauge to be there in the morning, I know it will actually arrive in the storage location the night before.

[DasBlunt]

ask to talk to a fed ex supervisor to find out exactly what is up with the label, packaging, or ?

[jgr81]

I've had this happen too many times also - we only use fedex for some i-131 therapy doses. Have had them not show up, or show up days later looking like they were ran over. No explanation when we called fed-ex. I'm a nuc med tech also.

In my experience it has had nothing to do with the package not being labeled correctly, there are certain DOT reqs that need to go on the package for radioactive materials, and they were always correct when we finally received the package.

And i'm pretty sure radioactive materials have to be shipped through air courier if they are over a certain radiation level, and I think that is only thru Fed Ex so there aren't any other options for shipment. Do you have a nuclear pharmacy that delivers unit doses for you, or are you too far away?

[mtnjam]

The doses we're running into problems with are Y90 Sirspheres and I-123 DaTScan. Like you said, other shippers are not an option as FedEx pretty much has the monopoly on shipping doses like these. I have also experienced, from what the pharmacy has told me, that there are some pilots out there that refuse to fly radioactive doses (oh, the irony of flying at altitude and exposure). When we have checked the tracking numbers, yes, usually the package is "stuck" in Memphis.

We do have a nuclear pharmacy that delivers doses and they're really good at what they do, but they also rely on FedEx to get us our I-123/I-131/111-In, etc. doses. The nuc pharmacy does not handle our DaTScan doses or our Y90 Sirspheres though, we'll have to check with other sites doing Y90 therapies and find out if they have the same issues.

Something tells me though that there is a whole hell of a lot of incompetence going on at FedEx, but certainly I'll have to call to see WTF is up with chronically not receiving shipments.

[toast2266]

It's clearly a mislabeling issue. This should help:

[jgr81]

Interesting it's only those two isotopes you are having trouble with... I haven't used the datscan yet. It's considered a schedule I or II controlled substance technically correct? Probably nothing to do with it but who knows.

Yes the irony of pilots complaining about radiation exposure is amusing. Same with my patients complaining about the exposure of a chest X-ray or something, oblivious to the fact that they have lived at 9500 ft elevation for 30+ years

[mtnjam]

yessir...DaT is a Schedule II controlled substance, basically a cocaine analogue targeting the dopamine receptors in the caudate and putamen. I wouldn't think this would have anything to do with why it's being held-up at FedEx. Like someone said earlier it's probably being held up due to monitoring.