How to decide between centralized or distributed hospital logistics? And avoid spending millions…
Currently, the word centralized seems to be very valued. We have heard a lot about patient-centered medicine, it involves treating the patient as a whole and not fragmented by diseases. However, patient-centered or patient-centered distribution has no relationship with centered medicine.
A centralized logistics (programmed logistics) of medicines consists of preparing all the medicines the patient needs for a certain period and dispensing them from the central pharmacy.
A distributed logistics (unscheduled logistics) of medicines, consists of loading medicines from the central pharmacy, dispensaries or satellite pharmacies to dispense to the patient.
When a manager needs to make a decision to distribute medicines or materials, there are 03 logistics options:
- Centralized
- Distributed
- Mixed
A centralized logistics It's not a new thing, it's been around since it began with unit dose ( dose unitarization) for the patient.
More than 05 years ago in Brazil, automated centralized logistics systems, called robots, began. They deliver several packages of medicines ready to distribute, joined together using a plastic ring. Occasionally, in cases of emergency, they can transport in a “carrier” inside a pneumatic tube, there are two large and famous hospitals in Brazil that use these systems.
A distributed logistics It is also automated through electronic dispensaries of medicines, where the necessary doses are periodically refilled and dispensed for each patient.
We emphasize that there is no such thing as purely centralized logistics, as it will always have to be associated with distributed logistics.
And why? Because we have the first dose and the change in the prescription of the medicine, for all of this, you will have to deal with distributed logistics and or also called unscheduled logistics. Furthermore, in emergency rooms, surgical centers, ICUs, hemodynamics, among others, there is a need for unscheduled logistics.
Therefore, in reality we only have 02 options: Mixed (Centralized + Distributed) and the Distributed .
If you could buy robotic equipment for a hospital with 200 beds, you would spend approximately 7 million reais, however, you should also buy automation for distributed logistics, it would be another 4 million reais, totaling 11 million reais to acquire an automated mixed system .
So, if your option is the pure distribution system, you will only spend 4 million reais. We concluded that the cost almost triples with mixed logistics.
But this is not the only point to be considered:
- The robotic system only prepares the medicines and you must separate and prepare the materials.
- These systems serve the entire hospital and their dependence is very critical, because if the system fails, the entire hospital will stop.
- The maintenance cost of this equipment corresponds proportionally to its purchase cost. It will have a high cost of qualified personnel and will still depend on imported parts.
- The cost of packaging is also very high because it is imported, in addition to the amount of plastic used in robot packaging is triple that of other systems (such as unitizing machines Opuspac) and this has ecological importance.
- Investment in distributed logistics can be made progressively, step by step.
- The robotic system packaging is not suitable for placing in electronic dispensaries, as they are very bulky and greatly reduce their storage capacity.
- When sending urgent orders through tubes from the robot, there is the problem of a queue and the corresponding delay, whereas in an electronic medicine dispensary everything is ready in a few seconds.
- No electronic dispensary you can combine Mats and Meds and maintain control of 100% of the items with SAFE STOCK, through one-by-one control, that is, unitary. The robot only controls the dispensing of Meds.
Conclusion: There are few large hospitals that can consider the mixed logistics option.
