Do you get your prescriptions by mail?

One of mine started its journey at a U.S. Post Office in Egg Harbor Township, NJ at 7:41 a.m. on February 5. By 8:56 a.m. it was at the Philadelphia Regional Distribution Facility and it was on its way to the next facility by 3:52 that afternoon. At 6:09 p.m. it was at the Harrisburg distribution Center. So far so good.

But when my medicine had not arrived by Monday, February 9 — four days later! — I checked with the USPS tracking system and the shipment showed as “in transit to next facility.” This morning — Wednesday, February — I checked again. At 8:11 a.m. the package was back in Philadelphia!

Apparently the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t understand that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

I am not the only person with such a story. Here’s another actual example. An item ordered by someone from Hopkinton, Massachusetts near Boston arrived in the Princeton, IL post office on January 27. From Princeton it went to and departed from Chicago that same day. The package went to Warrendale, PA on January 28, Springfield, MA on January 30, and then to Shrewsbury, MA. Next stop, Hopkinton, right? Nope. On February it went back to Illinois and started the trip over again.

The Postal Service has been implementing its 10-year “Delivering for America” plan in stages over the past few years. I remember seeing a cartoon in a national publication when the AT&T telephone monopoly was broken up in 1983: two men are standing on a sidewalk outside the Kremlin, and one says to the other, “Bear in mind, comrade, a country that would break up the most efficient telephone system in the world may not be playing with a full deck.”

Now the Postal Service is doing it.

A study by The Brookings Institution in December and updated January looks at “How USPS network changes threaten prescription drug access for vulnerable populations.”

If you depend on medicines by mail that you can’t go without, you might want to reconsider.

GLENDA HEYD

Montoursville

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom