Digital and healthy
New health logistics solutions. The Hadolt Group, a medium-sized enterprise from Austria, has digitalised the internal and external logistics of the main hospital in Graz, using its own software.
The Landeskrankenhaus-Universitätsklinikum Graz, the main hospital in Graz, in the Austrian federal state of Styria, is one of the largest hospitals in the country. It recently digitalised its entire logistics systems.
The internal and external logistics for blood samples, tissue samples, medicines, medical clothing, equipment and disinfectant have to run smoothly for the 6,500 employees who work there, on an area covering 340,000 m2.
The state-owned Styrian entity that is in charge of the hospital put the logistics job out to tender last year, and the process closed with the contract awarded to the Hadolt Group, a forwarding company based in Kalsdorf, near Graz. The medium-sized group of companies runs its own software entity called I-Log.
I-Log presented a transport concept with a digital background, as Michael Kazianschütz, Graz hospital’s head of logistics and supply chain management, pointed out to the ITJ. In the past every transport, for example from the central pharmacy in Graz to a hospital department, was organised by telephone and with traditional delivery notes. Today, everything runs digitally.
Software for standard and for emergency services
I-Log is in charge of both internal and external transport solutions as well as digital information logistics, from the placing of orders to invoicing. “Our vehicles are available for routine transports and for urgent trips,” Rolf Hadolt, managing director and owner, told the ITJ.
“We see this contract as an important continuation of the previous 14 years of good cooperation with the hospital in other fields,” he continued.
I-Log created a software package for the hospital that allows users to book shipments quickly and easily. “This is the decisive advantage compared to previous process,” Kazianschütz explained. Through a tracking and tracing system every transport order is booked immediately and the consignment status tracked. This saves the hospital staff many telephone calls with transport service providers. Since most of the transports take place within the hospital, it is important for Kazianschütz that not only the operational processes function reliably, but that the logistics provider’s staff are also welcome in the hospital.
Price not necessarily the main focus
The medical products are packed in special transport boxes, with refrigeration requirements also taken into account. They’re picked up and transported by I-Log from the specified locations. A 24-hour emergency service is also available for immediate transport needs, Hadolt added. He sees no reason to panic, despite the ever-changing framework in which the hospital and his enterprise work.
Good logistics performance has its price – even though the latter point is no longer the main focus. Personnel is also thin on the ground in Austrian logistics. Dual apprenticeship training still has a poor image in Austria. The state should be more involved in this issue and in training the next generation of truck drivers, Hadolt believes.
The entrepreneur created the Hadolt Group out of his father’s small enterprise. Today it has 220 employees at five locations in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. The corporation expects its turnover for 2022 to come to approximately EUR 55 million.