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PHARMACEUTICAL LOGISTICS: FIRST OUTSOURCING MODEL IN A REGION OF NORTHERN ITALY

European Statement

Selection, Procurement and Distribution

Author(s)

A. Car, E. Fortina, E. Lanzone, C. Rossi

Why was it done?

Pharmaceutical logistics is a complex process aimed at ensuring patient health. Key tasks include procurement, storage of drugs, as well as medical devices (MD), and economic materials (EM) distribution. The first outsourcing model warehouse, called MUS, was established to minimize inventories, reduce logistics costs, optimize management, improve product tracking and traceability, digitize logistics processes, and expedite administrative tasks.

What was done?

In March 2023, the first centralized warehouse project was launched in a region of northern Italy. MUS is managed by Local Health Authorities (LHA) Leader’s Hospital Pharmacists (HP) in collaboration with administrative staff and an external logistics operator.

How was it done?

The MUS was initiated with the entry of LHA Leader (LHA1). In September 2023, LHA2 and LHA3 joined the project, followed by LHA4 in February 2024. The participating LHAs serve 900,000 inhabitants and cover an area of 6,600 km². Medicines management and movement are entrusted to a logistics operator. LHA1 is responsible for the supply phase of medicines, medical devices (MD), economic materials (EM), and for processing departmental requests.

What has been achieved?

To date, MUS is 18 months old, has an area of 8,000m2 and manages 7 hospitals, 1556 delivery centers (DC), 4781 products: 2639 drugs, 1633 MD, 509 EM. On average, there are 5184 requests and 50300 product lines requested, monthly. MUS’s economic value stocks is 11.9million euros, of which 10.8million euros are drugs. Innovations have been introduced: instrumentation suitable for optical reading, acquisition of license plates, AIC verification. Deliveries to DCs are tracked, the installation of AUTOSTORE, an automated storage and recovery system, is still in the experimental phase. Digitalisation and dematerialisation are replacing old paper systems. The databases of pharmaceutical and MD products have been standardized to satisfy the requests of all LHAs participating in MUS, speeding up the purchasing procedures.

What next?

MUS’s growth must be monitored, in terms of quality of performance and spending optimization. The project is being expanded and the entrance to a hospital is needed to become fully operational. HP’s most challenging task is to orchestrate logistical activities, collaborate with logistics operator, ensuring quality, safety and timeliness of the service and keep the patient’s health as the main objective.

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