Segment SwitzerlandMarket environmentBusiness performance

Pleasing performance in the Switzerland segment 
Despite price cuts mandated by the regulator, in 2019 Zur Rose boosted revenue in Switzerland by 5.0 per cent to CHF 553.7 million, growing considerably faster than the market. The physicians business (Professional Services), which reported revenue growth of 7.2 per cent, was a key factor. The retail and brick-and-mortar businesses (B2C) also enjoyed a positive performance. However, government price cuts in particular on high-priced medicines and changes to treatment within the specialty care business had an impact on the otherwise strong performance in B2C.

Growth in market share in the physicians business (Professional Services)
Zur Rose increased market share in the physicians business from 24.5 to 25 per cent. In 2019 Zur Rose once again held more than 50 information and training events for doctors and medical practice ­assistants on issues related to the medication process and increasing therapy adherence. Zur Rose continues to support doctors’ practices in digitalising practice management. The following services are some examples: Smart Order allows practices to optimise orders, process them more efficiently, avoid ordering items that are unavailable and benefit from more favourable logistics conditions. The unavailable items account provides a real-time overview of all articles that are on order and are currently out of stock. It shows how long they have been outstanding, and changing and amending orders is quick and simple. The electronic medication plan lets doctors record medications electronically and share them with other doctors. The Medical Safe is a way for doctors to send patients reports, prescriptions, X-rays, medication plans and findings digitally and in a way that meets data protection requirements.

Automating medication management
Zur Rose is engaged in several projects to support doctors’ practices to introduce automated handling of medications for the practice pharmacy. This optimises the range of medications in the practice, improves availability and makes the administration process more efficient and quicker.

Specialty care for patients with complex therapies
The experts in Specialty Care assist patients with complex therapies in the correct administration of medication at home or in practices, for example when conducting infusion treatments. The offering was further enhanced during the year and the staff in the HomeCare team reinforced.

Two joint ventures in retail set up with Medbase
 In 2019 Zur Rose and Medbase, the healthcare provider of Migros, decided to further extend their cooperation through two joint ventures. The first joint venture relates to the roll-out of shop-in-shop pharmacies in ­Migros branches. The three pilot projects in Bern, Basel and Zurich were well received by Migros customers and more than met the targets set. The intention is therefore to continue to roll the concept out under the Zur Rose brand. To this end, the existing shop-in-shop pharmacies and the Zur Rose pharmacy at Welle 7 in Bern were transferred to the joint venture with Medbase.

In the second joint venture, Zur Rose and Medbase are intensifying their cooperation in e-commerce: from now on they will operate a shared webshop for beauty and personal care products at zurrose-shop.ch. In the medium term the aim is to run this as a marketplace where other partners will be able to offer their products. During the year under review the Zur Rose webshop posted stable growth in sales above plan, with a further increase in customer loyalty. There was also a significant rise in the number of new customers, partly due to the launch of new offer ­formats and more intense digital marketing. The product range was ­expanded once again. Various measures were taken to optimise customer friendliness, such as the new premium MyDelivery service, which lets customers chose for themselves the place, date and time of their delivery. The agreements for both joint ventures were completed at the end of 2019.

Mail-order pharmacy customers satisfied
The existing customers of the mail-order pharmacy appreciate the service, as a poll carried out at the end of the year shows: more than 90 per cent of those questioned were satisfied or very satisfied with the service. Further refinements were made to the control process during dispatch in the year under ­review: Zur Rose is now also using Smart Data to check every order for problematic multiple prescriptions and deviations from the strength of medication prescribed. To optimise electronic ordering, Zur Rose launched the prescription account on the patient portal zurrose.ch. Barrier-­free user-friendliness and responsive design tailored to the customer group simplify digital follow-up orders of repeat prescriptions.

ApoBox: an innovative offering from Zur Rose and Select
In the spring Zur Rose and Selecta presented Switzerland’s first ApoBox at the head office of the dispensing machine supplier in Kirchberg in the canton of Bern. Since then, customers have been able to obtain 45 different beauty and personal care products from the dispensing machines at their convenience, at any time of the day or night. By the end of the year ApoBoxes were available at ten high-footfall locations in Switzerland.

Increased therapy adherence thanks to Dailymed
Individual blister packaging for people who take several medications each week ­became increasingly popular over the year under review. Both revenue and the number of patients at Dailymed rose more than 50 per cent year-on-year. A customer survey indicated that over 90 per cent of users were satisfied or very satisfied with the service. Patients with chronic illnesses using Dailymed enjoy the increased security when taking their medication, as well as the convenience. The French-speaking customer service of Dailymed was further expanded to provide better cover for users in that part of the country. As a consequence of various investments it was possible to realise efficiency gains in manufacturing the blister packaging and further cut production costs.

Innovative supply solutions with health insurers and managed care organisations
 Zur Rose is cooperating with various insurers to develop alternative insurance models that coordinate service provision, thereby improving the quality of treatment, making it possible to reduce premiums for policy holders and contributing to reducing the cost of healthcare.

A good example of this is Multimed, the innovative alternative basic insurance model launched by CSS Insurance jointly with Zur Rose and other partners during the autumn premium round: the product focuses on strictly coordinating the treatment path between the service providers involved, including exchanging data on medical care. Patients with chronic illnesses obtain their medications either directly from their general practitioner or from a mail-order pharmacy.

During the year under review, Zur Rose also stepped up its collaboration with managed care organisations and physician networks and entered into various cooperation agreements. Once again, the focus of these is on putting into practice joint measures to improve medication safety and therapy adherence, raising the quality of service for patients.

Investing in logistics and IT
The further digitalisation of process stages was driven ahead in both logistics and IT. The enterprise architecture was extended and improved. This now represents a cutting-edge solution allowing flexible integration of new services.

Zur Rose as an employer
At the end of 2019, Zur Rose employed more than 400 people in Switzerland. The company once again improved employment conditions: all staff can now take part in an attractive share participation programme on request. They also enjoy a mobility package that includes discounted tickets for public transport. A project is under way to provide targeted support to work / life balance in the company.

The foundation of the Zur Rose Academy marked a major expansion of the training and development offering. Various measures were taken to further reinforce the company’s strongly team-based culture. The new location at Walzmühle opened in the autumn has a open-office concept with modern design to encourage agile working.

Subsidiary BlueCare to be a technology hub of Zur Ros
Cooperation within the Group focusing on technology was considerably stepped up during the year. BlueCare is contributing to the development of the system landscape of the Zur Rose Group through innovative software applications. Examples include Remedi for follow-on orders and Smart Data checking of prescriptions: this measurably improves patient safety. The algorithms for checking prescriptions were developed by Data Analytics in the Smart Data lab, which in future will have an automatic data feed from the operating systems through a data hub.

BlueEvidence, the leading IT system for implementing and controlling supply coordinated by general practitioners, was also further developed during the year under review. For example, BlueEvidence Praxis is now available in Italian, following the launch of the first network of physicians in Ticino. The system combats the trend towards healthcare centres by providing new options for evaluation in BlueEvidence Analyzer. The number of policy holders managed in BlueEvidence rose once again.

BlueConnect also saw strong growth in 2019, with a further increase in both usage and the user base. More than 1,000 Swiss doctors already use this communication platform in addition to their practice information system. A total of over 150,000 transfers and reports are exchanged every month over the platform in a way that meets data protection requirements.

For the first time during the year under review, a health insurer also deployed the technology platform of BlueCare, with CSS and its innovative Multimed product. Using the communication platform means the requirements of the policy holder model are met in an automated process.

BlueCare launched a new application called BlueMedication in a joint pilot project with the managed care organisations Argomed and eastcare. This assists doctors in the medical treatment of patients taking multiple medications and automates the time-consuming reconciliation of medication when leaving a hospital with medication from the practice. The list of medications can be checked by a Clinical Decision ­Support Service, and optimised if necessary. Patients receive the updated list of medications as a clear and comprehensible standard eMediplan. The new electronic service Medical Safe also allows doctors’ practices to share documents with patients in a way that meets data protection requirements. Patients can access this data at any time using their smartphone. The basic version of Medical Safe is free for both practices and patients.