St. Olavs Hospital strengthens internal tracking for critical deliveries

St. Olavs Hospital is one of Norway’s largest medical institutions, receiving up to 150 packages each day containing everything from routine supplies to life-saving equipment. With multiple wards spread across a large campus, the logistics team needed a more reliable way to track parcels internally and make sure urgent items were never misplaced.

Challenge

Every package destined for St. Olavs Hospital passes through its central logistics centre: a hub responsible for receiving, sorting and forwarding between 100 and 150 shipments per day. Managing this volume without advanced tracking support created significant operational risk.

Packages occasionally went missing inside the hospital. Some resurfaced only after delays, while others were never found. This slowed down patient-critical processes and required the logistics centre to compensate for the value of lost shipments.

The hospital needed a solution that could follow each parcel through every internal handover, ensuring full visibility from arrival to final delivery.

Solution

St. Olavs Hospital was already using nShift for its external package handling. Recognising an opportunity to improve internal reliability, Roar Sommer extended its implementation to build a low-cost internal tracking system.

The logistics centre now logs each package upon arrival and tracks its journey across wards. When staff enquire about an item, the team can instantly see whether it has been received, forwarded or is still en route. This replaces guesswork with real-time visibility and reduces time spent searching for missing items.

The extension of the system required no major infrastructure changes, making it an efficient way to introduce consistent tracking across a large, decentralised campus.

Results

The internal tracking solution has transformed the reliability of St. Olavs’ logistics operation. The hospital has not had to compensate for a single package since the system was introduced. Even when items go astray temporarily, the team can trace their path and recover them quickly.

The result is a more dependable flow of critical medical equipment and supplies, supporting faster care delivery and reducing financial loss across the organisation.