Two new partners, one goal: Swiss Post boosts healthcare in Switzerland

When the first operation at the Fricktal health center (GZF) begins at 7 a.m., everything’s ready: surgical clothing, prostheses and medical consumables. It’s all in the right place at the right time. What sounds self-evident is the result of a new partnership. Swiss Post has recently taken over responsibility for central storage and picking as well as transport services from the Villmergen logistics center to the GZF locations for the regional healthcare provider with its 10 sites.

Fricktal health center relies on Swiss Post’s logistics expertise

“We’re delighted to be able to offer the Fricktal health center our expertise and work together to create a modern, secure and efficient logistics solution that benefits patients,” says Markus Widmer, Sector Manager for Healthcare Logistics at Swiss Post.

The GZF, with its two hospitals in Rheinfelden and Laufenburg, the IAVO practices and emergency services, offers comprehensive healthcare provision: hospital services at the Rheinfelden and Laufenburg locations, as well as general and specialist medical care in the practices. As part of integrated care, around 1,100 employees are committed to inpatient and outpatient medical care. The existing central storage area in the basement of the Rheinfelden hospital was stretched to its capacity limits, and transport between the locations was cost-intensive.

Swiss Post impressed the GZF with expertise in healthcare logistics, proximity to its locations and a wide range of services. The tailored solution is modular and can be expanded if required. It consists of GDP-compliant storage in accordance with the highest pharmaceutical standards, digital interfaces for real-time inventory management and an intelligent transport concept with automatic sequencing. It means that the items are already sorted in the Swiss Post logistics center as required in the hospital. GZF staff no longer have to re-sort the delivery, but can distribute it directly to the relevant units.

“With Swiss Post’s professional support, we can deploy our resources where they are most needed: with our patients,” says a GZF representative. The focus is on digitizing procurement processes and relieving the strain on internal resources – reduced costs are an added plus.

Strategic partnership with Alloga

The Fricktal health center is not the only new addition to Swiss Post’s growing healthcare logistics network. If just under every second package of medication in Switzerland is handled by a single company, this is a clear sign of trust and competency. Alloga, the Swiss market leader for pharmaceutical logistics services for over 60 years, sends around 100 million packages every year – from prescription-only medicines and over-the-counter medicines to temperature-sensitive products such as vaccines and biologics. Around 200 employees manage 45,000 storage spaces and supply around 15,000 customers throughout Switzerland, including hospitals, pharmacies and medical practices.

But success also presents challenges: Alloga has grown strongly and its existing warehouses are full. The company was seeking a partner with additional logistics capacities and found the Villmergen warehouse logistics center at Swiss Post. At Swiss Post’s logistics center, the two companies are working together to create additional pallet spaces for GDP-compliant storage of medicines and medical products in the critical temperature range of 15 to 25 °C. Alloga describes the new collaboration as “a partnership that gets things moving”.

From regional health centers to national supply

From the Fricktal health center to Alloga and the Villmergen logistics center: all three locations show how professional logistics is becoming the basis of modern healthcare. At a time of scarce resources and increasing demands, logistics is becoming a strategic success factor. With these two new partnerships, Swiss Post is underlining its role as a key hub for Swiss healthcare logistics.

Swiss Post designs and orchestrates holistic supply chain solutions that relieve the strain on medical staff, increase the security of supply and digitize processes. Whether it’s in the operating theater or the high-bay warehouses – wherever Swiss Post offers its logistics expertise, healthcare providers and pharma logistics specialists can focus on their core tasks. This results in more efficient healthcare that ultimately benefits patients.