Most LTC pharmacies can answer a basic delivery question:
Did the medication get there?
But that doesn't tell you whether the delivery operation is working well.
A pharmacy can have a strong overall delivery percentage while still dealing with routes that consistently run late, facilities that create long delays, unnecessary repeat trips, or delivery costs that continue to increase.
The answer isn't tracking dozens of new metrics.
It's knowing which numbers actually help explain what is happening.
For LTC pharmacies, a few measurements can provide a much clearer picture of delivery performance.
On-time delivery is an important metric. But a single percentage can hide the problems behind it.
Imagine a pharmacy reports 97% on-time delivery.
That sounds strong.
But what if most of the late deliveries come from the same route? Or the same three facilities? Or only happen when medications leave the pharmacy after a certain time?
The percentage tells you how often something happened.
It doesn't necessarily tell you why.
That's why on-time performance becomes more useful when it's viewed alongside:
For example, if late deliveries consistently happen on routes leaving after 4:00 PM, the problem may have less to do with the driver and more to do with when the route is leaving the pharmacy.
A performance percentage should help lead you to the problem—not hide it.
Mileage and drive time are easy to understand.
But they don't tell the entire story of an LTC route.
A driver may spend additional time waiting for a nurse, obtaining a signature, navigating facility access requirements, or completing a medication handoff.
That time affects the rest of the route.
A clearer view of route performance should include a few basic measurements:
One example makes the importance clear.
Two routes may each cover 60 miles. One finishes in three hours while the other takes five.
Mileage alone makes them look almost identical.
The operational data tells you they're not.
Understanding the hidden cost of waiting at LTC facilities is one example of why looking beyond mileage matters.
The goal isn't to measure every minute. It's to understand where the route is losing time.
Pharmacy leaders usually know what they're paying for delivery.
That's not always the same as knowing what delivery is costing the business.
Consider a failed delivery.
The transportation charge may be easy to identify. But the pharmacy may also have to:
Those costs may never appear on the courier invoice.
The same applies to repeat trips, excessive driver hours, unnecessary mileage, and routes that regularly require additional capacity.
This is why cost per delivery is more useful when it reflects the successful delivery operation, not simply the transportation rate.
The distinction is important because a delivery model that looks inexpensive on paper can become expensive when failures and additional work are included.
We've explored this more broadly in What Is Your Pharmacy Delivery Operation Really Costing You?
The number pharmacy leaders need isn't simply “What are we paying?” It's “What are we getting for what we're paying?”
The purpose of delivery reporting isn't to build a bigger dashboard.
It's to make problems easier to see.
A useful LTC pharmacy delivery view should help answer questions such as:
This is where looking at the information together becomes valuable.
For example, a pharmacy might notice that one geographic area has a high number of deliveries, frequent repeat trips, and consistently longer route times.
That pattern is much more useful than any one of those numbers by itself.
Delivery heat maps are one way to make those geographic patterns easier to see.
At GO2 Delivery, pharmacy programs include real-time tracking, delivery documentation, proof of delivery, performance reporting, and regular review of cost and service performance. The purpose is not simply to generate more delivery data. It's to give pharmacy teams better visibility into how the operation is performing.
LTC pharmacies don't need 50 delivery KPIs.
They need enough information to answer the questions that matter:
Are deliveries arriving when they should?
Where are we losing time?
Where are we making unnecessary trips?
What problems keep happening?
What is delivery actually costing us?
If your reporting can't answer those questions, adding more numbers probably isn't the solution.
Better visibility is.
GO2 helps LTC pharmacies connect delivery tracking with route performance, chain-of-custody documentation, exception management, and cost reporting so pharmacy leaders can see more than whether a package was delivered. GO2's current pharmacy programs specifically include real-time visibility, proof of delivery, performance reporting, and ongoing review of cost, service, write-offs, and delivery performance.
If you have plenty of delivery data but still struggle to understand what's working and what isn't, it may be time to look at the operation differently.
Start with on-time delivery, actual route departure, facility wait time, route completion, repeat trips, delivery exceptions, and delivery cost. Together, these provide a clearer picture of reliability, efficiency, and cost than delivery status alone.
No. An overall percentage can hide recurring problems. Pharmacies should also understand which deliveries are late, where they occur, and what factors contributed to the delay.
Exceptions show where the normal delivery process is breaking down. Tracking failed deliveries, redeliveries, address problems, facility issues, and other recurring exceptions can help identify patterns that may otherwise remain hidden.