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Compliance

The full standard behind every run — what we sign, how we package, how we hold temperature, and what we can produce for you on request.

This page is written for the person who has to justify the choice of courier. Below is what Sentinel does on every run, what documentation you receive, what we can produce for your vendor file, and where the boundaries of our scope actually sit. Where a claim rests on a procedure rather than a certificate, it says so.

HIPAA Compliance

We operate as a HIPAA business associate, maintain current training, and sign a BAA with every facility before the first run.

The BAA and the training are the baseline every medical courier should meet. The protection that actually matters is architectural: our dispatch and documentation systems are built so that patient data never reaches them, which means there is no PHI in our software to expose in the first place. Compliance you can verify on paper, backed by a boundary built into the design.

What This Means
  • BAA signed before the first run
  • HIPAA training current, renewals monitored
  • Breach notification procedure documented
  • Protection by architecture, not policy alone
Specification
Role
Business Associate
BAA
Signed at onboarding
Training
HIPAA, renewal monitored
Breach Procedure
Documented

Patient Data Never Enters Our Systems

Our systems record logistics only — facility, time, temperature, specimen category. Patient identifiers remain on the sealed requisition inside the bag and never reach our software. It is a boundary in the architecture, not a policy someone has to follow.

A courier operation runs on two layers. The physical layer is the sealed specimen bag we carry. The digital layer is where dispatch and documentation live, and it is the only layer we keep records in. Patient identifiers stay on the sealed requisition inside the bag: we do not transcribe them, photograph them, or enter them into any system. There is nothing to secure against exposure, because there is nothing there to expose.

What This Means
  • No patient identifiers in dispatch or documentation
  • Sealed requisition remains sealed
  • Nothing to leak from our systems, because nothing is stored
  • Boundary holds regardless of who is driving
Specification
Recorded
Facility, time, temperature, specimen category
Not Recorded
Name, DOB, MRN, diagnosis, ordered test
Boundary Type
Architectural
Patient Identifiers
Remain on sealed requisition

UN3373 Category B

We transport Category B specimens to UN3373 packaging standards and record the standard on the run sheet. We do not accept Category A infectious substances.

Packaging is confirmed at pickup, not taken on trust, and the standard is written onto the run sheet, so the condition a shipment travelled in is part of the record rather than an assumption made after the fact. Category A infectious substances fall outside what we handle, and we decline them rather than improvise.

What This Means
  • Packaging confirmed before the run begins
  • Standard recorded on the run sheet
  • Category A declined — no improvisation
  • Consistent handling across every payload
Specification
Standard
UN3373
Category
B only
Category A
Not accepted
Verification
At pickup, recorded

Temperature Control

We match the cooler to your payload — ambient, refrigerated or frozen — and record the condition at both ends of the run.

A generic cooler is a guess. We match the equipment to what the payload requires, then record the temperature at pickup and again at delivery, so the record shows the condition the shipment travelled in, not just that it arrived. Ambient, refrigerated or frozen, the standard is the same: measured, not assumed.

What This Means
  • Cooler matched to your payload
  • Condition recorded at both ends of the run
  • Ambient, refrigerated or frozen, as required
  • Temperature documented, not assumed
Specification
Options
Ambient, Refrigerated, Frozen
Recorded
Pickup and delivery
Equipment
Validated, matched to payload

Chain of Custody

Tamper-evident handoffs, signed and timestamped from pickup to delivery.

Each transfer records time, origin, destination, condition and packaging standard, and the completed record is kept in an indexed file rather than a loose stack. Whenever you need proof of how a run happened — for your own compliance file, for a client, or for a question raised after the fact — it is produced on request, not reconstructed.

What This Means
  • Signed, timestamped record at every handoff
  • Condition recorded at delivery
  • Retained and indexed, not filed loose
  • Produced on request
Specification
Capture
Every handoff
Signature
Required at each transfer
Retention
Retained and indexed
Production
On request

Trained & Current

HIPAA and OSHA bloodborne pathogens training, kept current, with certificates produced the same day you ask for them.

When your auditor asks for vendor documentation, you should not spend two weeks chasing your courier for a PDF. Renewal dates are tracked and alerted well before expiry, so nothing lapses mid-contract, and current certificates go out the same day you request them.

What This Means
  • Certificates produced same day on request
  • HIPAA training current
  • OSHA bloodborne pathogens current
  • Nothing lapses mid-contract
Specification
HIPAA Training
Current
OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens
Current
Renewal Tracking
Automated, alerted before expiry
Certificates
Available on request

Credentials held

HIPAA Compliance for Healthcare Providers
Privacy, security and breach-notification obligations that attach to a business associate.
Current through February 2027
Bloodborne Pathogens
Exposure control, spill response and handling of potentially infectious material, to OSHA guidelines.
Current through February 2027
DOT Hazardous Materials
Hazardous materials familiarity under federal transport rules. Adjacent to specimen transport, and not a substitute for a specimen-handling certification.
Held
Equipment Familiarization
Operation of the transport and temperature equipment used on the road.
Held

UN3373 Category B is a packaging standard we work to and verify at every pickup. It is a documented procedure rather than a certificate, and we do not present it as one. If your vendor qualification requires a named specimen-handling credential, ask us where that stands before you shortlist us rather than afterward.

Where our scope ends

A compliance page listing only capabilities is describing half the picture. These are the boundaries, set out here so none of them is ever a discovery on a live route.

Category A infectious substances

Not accepted on any service. Category A material carries packaging, training and handling requirements outside what this operation is built for, and we decline it rather than improvising around the difference.

Controlled substances

Sentinel does not transport scheduled medication of any class. If part of your volume is controlled, you will need a separately registered courier for that portion.

Specimen-handling certification

Our training covers HIPAA, bloodborne pathogens and hazardous materials transport. No credential currently on file is specific to UN3373 packaging or specimen handling, and we do not claim one. The packaging standard is confirmed at pickup as a documented procedure and recorded on the run sheet.

Operating window

Monday to Friday, 07:00 to 18:00. There is no walk-up urgent service and we publish no guaranteed response time. Time-critical and after-hours work is arranged with contracted clients inside their agreement, where the window and the escalation path are settled in advance.

Transport only

We do not warehouse stock, open sealed packaging, verify carton contents against a supplier label, or perform any part of your receiving or testing process. Those are yours, and doing them in a vehicle would undermine the packaging we were engaged to protect.

Diligence questions

What can you produce for our vendor file, and how quickly?
Current training certificates, the BAA for your review, our documented operating procedures, and a sample of the run record your facility would receive. Certificates go out the same day you ask. If your qualification form asks for something we do not currently hold, you will hear that in the same reply instead of discovering it three weeks into onboarding.
When do you sign a BAA?
Before the first live run, as part of onboarding, not after service has started. We operate as a business associate and the agreement is signed in that capacity. If your organisation has its own BAA form it would rather use, send it and we will review it.
How do you keep training from lapsing mid-contract?
Renewal dates for every credential we hold are tracked in an automated system that alerts well ahead of expiry, at ninety, sixty, thirty and seven days out, and continues alerting if anything passes its date. Items that have no renewal date yet, because the underlying licence or policy does not exist, are reported rather than quietly skipped.
Your records include specimen category and facility. How is that not patient information?
A fair question, and the distinction is the whole design. What we record is logistical: which facility, what time, what temperature, what category of payload, and the accession or container ID your laboratory assigned. None of it identifies a person, and the accession ID can only be resolved to a patient by the laboratory that issued it. The identifiers stay on the sealed requisition inside the bag. We do not transcribe them, photograph them, or enter them anywhere.
What is your procedure if something goes wrong in transit?
Condition is recorded at both ends of every run, so an event has a time and a place attached to it. If a container leaks, a seal fails, packaging is damaged or a temperature moves outside range, it is documented as it is found and you are called while we are still in the vehicle. A documented breach-notification procedure covers the case where an incident touches protected information. You hear from us before you hear from anyone else.
Our auditor will ask about subcontractors. How are they covered?
Any partner courier operates under the same documented procedures, signs a BAA, and carries liability coverage naming Sentinel. If your organisation would rather no partner courier ever ran your route, a Sentinel-courier-only clause goes into your agreement and your auditor gets a straightforward answer.

Ask for the documentation packet

If you are building a vendor file or working through a qualification form, tell us what it needs and we will send what we hold. Use the quote form or email dispatch@sentinelmedicaltransport.net. Where a requirement on your form is one we do not currently meet, that will be in the same reply rather than a follow-up two weeks later.

Request the packet

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