A hospital that I used to work at has a tube system that you could
transport anything from paperwork to blood & urine specimens.  You could
not transfer anything that was on ice because if it leaked out it would
shut the whole system down.  They also had what they called a dumb
waiter (?spelling) which was used to transport pathology specimens.  It
works just like an elevator & ran from the OR to the specimen processing
dept of the hospital.  Each time it reached it's destination a buzzer
would go off to inform you that something was there.  Both are very
convenient & cut back considerably on the time it took for a person to
actually go & retrieve specimens.
Happy Thanksgiving all!
Kim