Blog Geospin

Upload function: Optimizing bureaucratic supply chains in the healthcare sector

Written by Geospin | Oct 20, 2021 8:00:00 AM

iuvas, a supplier of medical devices based in Freiburg, uses our Location Intelligence Portal to analyze the geographic distribution of their sales locations. Learn more about our case study here.

iuvas develops innovative solutions for independent eating and drinking for people with various disabilities. Products that have a medical benefit, such as the drinking aid “sippa”, can be listed as aids in Germany and prescribed under certain conditions. Patients can redeem these prescriptions at specialty stores. So far so good?

It appears that not every medical supply store and every pharmacy can settle all listed aids with the health insurance funds. There must be specific contracts between the health insurance fund and the service provider. Therefore, it is very difficult for patients to get an overview of where a prescription can be and cannot be redeemed. In the worst case, a patient tries to redeem the prescription at several service providers and gives up in frustration eventually.

 

The medical drinking aid sippa“ by iuvas provides numerous advantages for patients with swallowing disorders, people with limited mobility
or people with dementia. "Sippa" is the first product of its kind for which the costs can be covered by health insurance under certain circumstances.

 

Our case study aimed to analyze the geographical distribution of medical supply stores and pharmacies that can already bill health insurance companies for iuvas' medical drinking aid. This is where the Geospin portal comes into play. First, an address list with the medical supply stores and pharmacies that already distribute "sippa" was uploaded to the Location Intelligence Portal. Adding a separate data layer with the current sales locations made it possible to view the geographical distribution of the current distribution centers on the interactive map.

 

The current sales locations are displayed on the interactive map in the Geospin portal. This makes it easy to identify gaps in supply.

"At first glance, it was great that we can not only see the centers of medical care through the geographical classification, but also put this in relation to our sales teams and distribution partners," notes Dr. Sebastian Hin, the Managing Director of iuvas.

The visualization of the addresses on a map simplified the identification of gaps in supply. It is now possible to geographically target service providers in the sales network. In the future, this will enable us to provide every customer with access to the required aids close to home.