BayCare partners with drone company to speed up medical deliveries in Pinellas County
BayCare Health's drone program
BayCare Health System is launching a new drone pilot program later this year to bypass traffic and speed up medical deliveries across Pinellas County. FOX 13's Mark Wilson reports.
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. - BayCare Health System is launching a new drone pilot program later this year to bypass traffic and speed up medical deliveries across Pinellas County.
Medical drone network
What we know:
Partnering with the automated delivery company Zipline, the healthcare system will use a specialized drone network to transport time-sensitive prescriptions and medical specimens.
Courtesy: Zipline
The aerial service will move laboratory samples directly from urgent care centers, freestanding emergency rooms, and home care patients to centralized hospital labs.
Drone integration with courier teams
By the numbers:
In 2025, BayCare's courier team drove more than 3.2 million miles servicing the healthcare network.
Officials emphasized that while the technology will streamline operations, it will not replace these human workers.
The drones are intended to serve as an efficiency tool to help team members optimize their routes. There are certain larger or specialized medical items that cannot be safely loaded onto a drone.
Driving medical efficiency
What they're saying:
"It can be challenging at times with traffic and there are those time-sensitive tests that we drop everything to get a courier there," said Donna Lynch, vice president of laboratory services at BayCare Health System. "It will save a nurse a trip from having to drive a specimen to a hospital lab so they can spend more time with the patient."
Lynch noted that while the organization can manage many operational factors, roadway traffic and accidents remain entirely out of their control.
"In some of these situations, it may be quicker and easier to load these specimens onto a drone and send them to a hospital lab for further testing," Lynch explained.
Healthcare questions
What we don't know:
Officials have not yet confirmed the exact date when the drone flights will begin operating in Pinellas County, only saying in late 2027.
Courtesy: Zipline
It remains unclear how many specific urgent care locations or freestanding emergency rooms will be included in the initial launch phase.
Additionally, administrators have not disclosed the specific weight and size limits for items transported by the drones.
Patient privacy and prescription drop-offs
What's next:
For prescription deliveries, the service will be an option for certain patients who are capable of retrieving their medicine once the drone drops it off outside.
To protect user privacy, the hospital system stated that Zipline will have no access to patient medical records.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from BayCare Health System Vice President of Laboratory Services Donna Lynch, who explained how the drone network will operate.