Hospitals across China are tackling the long-standing challenge of delivering food and packages to patients and staff with a new innovative ‘relay delivery’ system. This collaborative effort, spearheaded by SF Intra-city, SF Express, and Meituan, aims to create a more convenient and efficient delivery experience within the often restricted hospital environments.
The Delivery Dilemma in Hospitals
Large general hospitals have historically presented significant hurdles for instant delivery services. Many operate under strict closed-off management, preventing external delivery personnel from entering the premises. This often forces deliveries to designated drop-off points outside the hospital, requiring medical staff, patients, or their families to retrieve items themselves. In other cases, even when delivery personnel are allowed entry, the sprawling nature of hospital buildings, coupled with limited elevator access, can lead to prolonged waiting times and difficulties in reaching specific wards or offices. These issues negatively impact the experience for everyone involved: the delivery riders, the hospital staff, and the recipients.
Introducing the ‘Relay Delivery’ Solution
To address these pain points, SF Intra-city, in partnership with SF Express and Meituan, has launched a ‘relay delivery’ solution. This system centers around a newly established ‘Rider (Express) One-Stop Service Center’ within the hospital. The core innovation lies in a ‘pick-up and drop-off separation, segmented relay, fixed-point handover, and professional operation’ model.
How the ‘Relay Delivery’ Works
The process is designed for seamless integration and efficiency:
- Meituan’s Role: Meituan riders accept incoming orders and manage the initial delivery. They bring the food orders to the designated hospital ‘Relay Service Center’. After a quick scan for handover, they depart without needing to enter the main hospital campus.
- SF Intra-city’s Role: A dedicated team of riders, vetted and certified by SF Intra-city and registered with the hospital, takes over at the service center. These professional riders, equipped with necessary credentials, then enter the hospital premises to handle the ‘last 100 meters’ of delivery. They are responsible for precise delivery directly to the patient’s room or staff office, ensuring accuracy and care.
- SF Express’s Role: Within the same service center, SF Express operates its own hub. This allows them to provide convenient parcel collection, drop-off, and mailing services for hospital staff, patients, and their families.
This tripartite division of labor creates a closed-loop system: ‘external centralized handover + internal professional team delivery’. It ensures that while respecting the hospital’s access control policies, the delivery process is optimized for efficiency and user convenience.
Early Success and Expansion
The effectiveness of this ‘relay delivery’ model has already been demonstrated. At the Binjiang Hospital of Zhejiang University Children’s Hospital, the system has led to a steady increase in food delivery volumes. Front-line riders experience significantly reduced waiting times, and overall delivery efficiency has markedly improved. SF Intra-city’s dedicated sorting and management, along with specialized delivery teams, have also led to a reduction in issues like lost or missed deliveries.
The upgrade in service is tangible: deliveries now reach directly to the door of patient rooms or offices, eliminating the need for recipients to leave their location. Furthermore, the system has helped mitigate problems such as disorganized parking of delivery vehicles around hospital entrances, leading to improved orderliness within the hospital grounds.
With the guidance and support of provincial and local health commissions, community street offices, and hospital administrations, the Meituan ‘relay delivery’ model has been successfully implemented in several hospitals in Hangzhou. These include the Yuhang Campus of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, and Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
More Than Just Food Delivery
The ‘One-Stop Service Center’ is not solely for food deliveries. Recognizing the high density of people and the demanding schedules of medical professionals and patients’ families within hospitals, SF Express has integrated parcel services. This includes providing access to Fengchao smart lockers and offering mailing, collection, and drop-off services for express packages. This comprehensive approach aims to meet the diverse logistical needs of everyone within the hospital ecosystem, transforming a complex logistical challenge into a streamlined and user-friendly service.
