ZLC develops a new course to improve hospital logistics through the HELP project

Zaragoza Logistics Center participates in the HELP project funded by the European Commission and whose mission is to improve logistics efficiency in hospitals throughout Europe. Through various Vocational Training, Bachelor, Master or Doctorate studies, employees of the health sector will be trained to reduce the economic costs of the centers. Within this plan, ZLC is in charge of developing the training content at the master level.

Zaragoza, April 28th 2018

Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC), the research center promoted by the Government of Aragon in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been working, since September 2017, on the development of the HELP project, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission, to achieve better efficiency in the logistics of hospitals throughout Europe by means of training.

HELP project “Healthcare Logistics Education and Learning Pathway”, is carried out in response to the changing and growing needs of healthcare organizations in the logistics field. The origin of the project was the result of a Master's degree project at a Finnish University, to carry out certain actions to improve logistics, in order to save both money and time.

In this sense, a curriculum will be developed that will include Vocational Training, Bachelor's, Master's or Doctorate studies for people who wish to develop a career in this field. As explained by Mª Teresa de la Cruz, Project Manager at ZLC, "there is the paradox that nowadays it is   hospital attendants, assistants or nurses who dedicate themselves to this work without having studies in logistics".

For this, Zaragoza Logistics Center, an expert entity in the development of Master and PhD education, is "the leader of the work package focused on developing the Master's content and, in addition, we contribute to the work package dedicated to the PhD," as mentioned by de la Cruz.

The training material developed by ZLC, which will last several months, and will be open to the entire university community during the project execution, will be taught online through a web platform as a pilot project.

The mission, as de la Cruz explains, is to develop an educational curriculum for the whole Europe, so all the hospitals on the continent can benefit. For this reason, although in a first instance, the project has been launched in the centers of the countries that participate in HELP project as partner (Finland, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium and Estonia), in the next few years it is expected to extrapolate it to the rest.

These organizations with good logistics management can reap excellent benefits from both a financial and a clinical point of view. For this reason, according to de la Cruz, "both medical care and the efficiency of hospitals are improved."

Thus, ZLC's Project Manager points out that between 30% and 45% of the financial resources of the hospitals are destined to logistics and purchases, therefore, it ensures "by optimizing these processes, it is possible to lower costs and that it also reverts to better quality”.

HELP project links higher education institutions and civil society organizations at the international level, thus offering authentic learning environments and strengthening cross-border knowledge transfer cooperation; therefore, users have the opportunity to increase their professional, social and intercultural skills in cooperation with international healthcare organizations, and the chance to compare their logistics and supply chain practices internationally.

Finally, the education developed in international cooperation also supports the recognition of the credits obtained in the different studies in health care logistics in the partner countries.

More information about HELP project by clicking here.

“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”