What does a receiving clinic get at handover?
Your lab receives the specimens, a signed chain-of-custody log covering every leg of the trip, the shipper's charge and seal record, the originating clinic's inventory and release paperwork, and a transfer receipt your embryologist signs. All of it arrives with the courier, in person.
Chain-of-custody log
Timestamped entries for pickup, each transfer of physical control, every security checkpoint, and delivery. Names, not initials. If the tank changed hands, the log says who and when.
Shipper charge record
The 24-hour LN2 saturation is documented before the vessel leaves, along with the seal number applied at the sending lab. The vessel is not opened again until your embryologist takes custody.
Originating clinic paperwork
The release authorisation, the inventory sheet listing canes, straws or vials, and patient identifiers as recorded by the sending lab.
Signed transfer receipt
The document that closes our custody and opens yours. Your embryologist signs it after checking the shipment, not before.
What should I check when a shipment arrives at my clinic?
Check five things before you sign. The tamper-evident seal is intact. The dewar shows no impact damage or external frost line. The custody log accounts for the whole trip with no unexplained gaps. Cane and vial labels match the inventory sheet. Patient identifiers match your own record. Sign after all five, not before.
- 1Seal. Compare the seal number on the dewar against the number written on the chain-of-custody log at pickup. A different number is not automatically a problem, but it needs an entry in the log explaining it.
- 2Vessel. Look for dents, a bent neck tube, or heavy exterior frosting. A vapour shipper that has been tipped or dropped can lose absorbed nitrogen faster than its rating.
- 3Custody trail. Every leg should carry a named person, a time and a signature, from the sending lab to your bench. If that shipment also carried a temperature logger, read the trace: you want coverage with no blank stretches. A gently rising line near the end of a long trip is normal physics. A step change is not.
- 4Inventory. Count what is in the canister against what the sending lab wrote down. Do this while the courier is still standing there.
- 5Identity. Patient name, date of birth, and clinic record number on the paperwork against your own intake record. Date of birth is the field that catches transcription errors.
If the specimens came in on a shipment we carried and you want the full custody record behind the delivery rather than the summary receipt, ask. We will send it.
What should I do if the temperature log or documentation looks wrong?
Take custody anyway and get the specimens into your tank. Then annotate the transfer receipt with the discrepancy before you sign it, and photograph the log, the seal and the paperwork. Call the courier and the originating clinic the same day, while the courier is still reachable and can still remember the trip.
Refusing the shipment usually makes it worse
Sending a dewar back into transit adds hours to the clock for material that may already have had a rough trip. Getting the canes into a properly charged tank is almost always the better first move. The paperwork dispute can be resolved afterwards. A signed receipt with a written exception on it protects you better than an unsigned one.
A gap in the log is not the same as a warming event
Data loggers stop recording for boring reasons, including battery and export errors. A missing half hour with the same reading on either side is a recording problem. A reading that climbs and then returns is a thermal event, and it will show a characteristic slope rather than a jump. Ask for the raw file before drawing a conclusion from a summary graph.
What we can and cannot tell you
On a shipment we carried, we can reconstruct the route from the custody log and name every person who had physical control of the vessel. We cannot tell you whether a particular blastocyst survived. That assessment belongs to your lab, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Reach us on +1 (281) 699-3321 or clinics@guardiancryo.com. If the shipment was not ours and you want a second read on a temperature trace, call anyway. We would rather be useful than billable.
How does a clinic partnership or referral work?
You either refer the patient to us or send us the transfer request directly. We quote the route, coordinate release paperwork with the other clinic, carry the specimens by hand, and deliver to your embryologist with the documentation. Most of the time the patient is the paying party and your lab does nothing but sign.
Referral
You hand the patient our number or the quote form. We deal with them from there and keep your coordinator copied on dates.
Direct request
Your coordinator sends the origin, destination, specimen type and target window. We come back with a price and a date, not a call-us-for-pricing page.
Ongoing route
If you move specimens on the same corridor repeatedly, say Houston to Lagos or Houston to London, we can hold a standing procedure and pricing for it.
We are a small Houston operation, so there is no volume commitment and a single transfer is a perfectly normal request. If your clinic has patients relocating abroad, or overseas patients who need material brought into the United States, the international page covers what sits on your side of the line and what sits on ours.
Equipment Specifications
Clinics need certainty that samples won't thaw. Here are our specifications:
The "Guardian" Protocol
Our standardized procedures ensure every shipment meets the highest laboratory standards.
Dual-ID Verification
We verify patient names and IDs against clinic records at the point of pickup.
Hand-Inspection Only
100% X-ray-free transit. We utilize TSA and ICAO exemptions for "Medical Hand-Inspection Only."
Courier Training
Every courier is trained in IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) and HIPAA data privacy.
Chain of Custody
Meticulous documentation from pickup to delivery, with tamper-evident seals and timestamped logs.
Certified & Compliant
Meeting the highest industry standards
Downloadable Resources
Everything your lab needs to evaluate and implement GuardianCryo as a transport partner.
Lab Transfer SOP
A 1-page PDF of our standardized pickup/drop-off procedures.
Shipper Validation
Temperature hold-test graph showing -190°C stability.
Insurance Summary
Summary of our cargo and professional liability coverage.
Request a Clinic Partnership Kit
Receive our full credentials package, including certificates, SOPs, and insurance documentation.
