The Overlooked Key to Healthcare Logistics: A Hospital Transformation Story

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Onomatic

Updated September 12, 2025 | 3 min read

Rethinking Healthcare Logistics: Why the Final 100 Feet Matters Most

When we talk about healthcare logistics, our minds often jump to shipping containers, cold chain integrity, and delivery trucks. But what happens in the final, critical steps of the journey—inside the hospital walls? This is where the supply chain’s promises are either kept or broken.

The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) understood this challenge intimately. They recognized that a bottleneck in their internal operations could undermine their entire healthcare logistics strategy. The hospital had invested in a powerful goods-to-person (G2P) automated storage system, but it wasn’t performing.

This case study explores how they solved the problem, providing a masterclass for anyone serious about improving their healthcare logistics performance.

The Challenge: A Bottleneck in the Healthcare Logistics Chain

TOH faced a problem that plagues many large healthcare facilities: a disconnect between advanced hardware and the intelligence needed to run it. Their G2P carousel was a powerful piece of equipment, but it was operating without a guide.

  • No Strategic Direction: The system lacked the intelligence to prioritize patient and putaway orders, creating a first-in, first-out traffic jam for critical supplies.
  • Fragmented Systems: Their Warehouse Management (WMS) and Enterprise Planning (ERP) software couldn’t communicate in real-time with the automation, creating information silos.
  • Operational Risk: This disconnect resulted in inefficient workflows and the constant risk of inventory errors—a critical failure point in any healthcare logistics network.

The Solution: Intelligent Orchestration for a Resilient Supply Chain

To fix the broken link in their logistics chain, TOH partnered with Onomatic to implement its warehouse orchestration platform. This software layer became the central brain, connecting the hospital’s high-level needs with its on-the-ground automated hardware.

The platform receives orders from the hospital’s WMS, then intelligently analyzes and sequences tasks for the G2P carousel. By optimizing both picking and putaway workflows in real-time, the system ensured that the right items were in the right place at the right time. This is the essence of modern, effective healthcare logistics: using data to create a responsive, resilient, and error-proof flow of goods.

The Results: A New Benchmark for Hospital Logistics Performance

By integrating this intelligent software layer, The Ottawa Hospital didn’t just fix a piece of equipment; it transformed its internal supply chain into a strategic asset.

The results demonstrate a clear victory for their healthcare logistics strategy:

  • Enhanced System Performance: The underutilized G2P system was unlocked, turning a sunk cost into a highly responsive and efficient logistics hub.
  • Seamless Workflow Integration: The platform eliminated the disconnects between systems, creating a single, streamlined operational flow.
  • A Future-Ready Foundation: TOH now has a flexible, adaptable software foundation that can incorporate new robotics and automation as their needs evolve.

This case study proves that world-class healthcare logistics requires a holistic view—one that places as much importance on internal hospital operations as it does on external transportation and delivery networks.

“The solution exceeded our expectations in both functionality and user experience. [Onomatic’s] willingness to adjust to our operational requirements and tailor the solution to the hospital environment was especially appreciated. Implementation was smooth and minimally disruptive, with seamless integration into our existing systems and a significant improvement in response times. The intuitive interface eased staff transition and resolved several legacy system issues.”

– Senior Systems Analyst at The Ottawa Hospital

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Have questions about our services or how to get started? Our FAQ section provides clear, concise answers to the most common inquiries.

A warehouse orchestration platform acts as a central “brain” for your automated hardware, like a G2P carousel. While a WMS or ERP knows what orders need to be filled, the orchestration platform determines the most efficient way to execute them. It analyzes the queue of picking and putaway orders and instructs the automation on the optimal sequence of tasks, eliminating indecision and turning a disconnected piece of hardware into a high-performance system.

Yes. A key benefit of a warehouse orchestration platform like Onomatic’s is that it is “hardware agnostic.” It is designed to sit between your existing Warehouse Management System (WMS) or ERP and your automation equipment. The platform receives orders from your primary software and translates them into efficient commands for your hardware, preserving your initial investment and enhancing its performance without requiring a complete system overhaul.

In a hospital environment, efficiency and accuracy are critical. A warehouse orchestration platform addresses the unique challenges of healthcare logistics by intelligently prioritizing tasks. It can sequence urgent patient orders alongside routine putaway of new supplies, ensuring critical items are retrieved with maximum speed. This leads to significantly improved response times, reduces the risk of inventory errors, and creates a more streamlined supply chain to support patient care.

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is primarily responsible for inventory management—tracking what you have and where it is. A warehouse orchestration platform specializes in execution—directing the people and automation on the floor. It takes the “what to do” from the WMS and figures out the “how to do it most efficiently,” synchronizing different systems and hardware to optimize the physical workflow in real-time.