Together We Care - Together We Test

Sciana member Daniel Liedtke explains the public-private partnership project he established to prevent the spread of COVID-19

In 2021 - another year dominated by COVID-19 – I was inspired by the initiatives of my Sciana colleagues working in the NHS. As a result, the Hirslanden Group, for which I’m CEO, ventured into another innovative public health and public-private partnership project.

In addition to the nationwide inpatient and intensive medical treatment of COVID patients and the establishment of the largest Swiss vaccination centres, we have developed “TOGETHER WE TEST” on behalf of the cantons and the federal government - a project for repeat PCR- testing with saliva in Switzerland. This initiative enabled us to add prevention as a further activity in the fight against COVID.

The idea took shape after a round of spicy Graubünden Salsiz, fresh bread, and a glass of wine at the civil defence centre of the canton of Graubünden. Martin Bühler, head of the cantonal command staff, gave us his assessment of the situation. He had just launched a second pilot project for monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic: repetitive testing in businesses and schools using saliva tests.

Besides being interested in the development of the measures, I was interested to see if the Hirslanden Group would also be able to contribute in this area. We were already treating COVID patients and running the biggest vaccination centres in some cantons. So repetitive testing seemed to me to be an ideal, further contribution to fighting the pandemic.

Scaling up the project

So I had an intensive exchange with Gieri Cathomas, the project leader for Graubünden, about the opportunities and risks of a national expansion of repetitive testing using PCR saliva tests. As a result, at the end of February 2021, we agreed on further developing the regional model into a Swiss-wide scalable concept, which we would offer nationwide under the name “TOGETHER WE TEST”.

It was clear from the beginning that the project had to focus on an IT platform/network, a so-called digital ecosystem, which would be able to orchestrate public and private network partners. It was also clear to us that this digital ecosystem had to meet the highest standards of data security, interfaces, and functionality and had to be realised in the shortest possible time.

It was important to us to put together a core team of proven experts and network partners for all tasks such as setting up logistics, laboratories, a call centre, transport services, material procurement, and quality assurance. In this way, we were and can offer repetitive PCR testing with saliva in a valid and reliable way to people in Switzerland via cantons in all schools and companies. This process was followed by agreements with important partners such as the Swiss Post, Swisscom, more than 20 public and private laboratories, and regional bicycle couriers.

At the same time, numerous questions were raised:

• How would the pandemic develop?
• Would a small team that had not worked together be up to the task?
• Would we be able to implement the technical and regulatory requirements within a few weeks?

As unclear as the overall picture was at the beginning, I was overwhelmed by the development after just a short time. The speed with which all project elements took shape, thanks to the dynamism and commitment of this small, creative, purpose-driven team, was most impressive.

By the end of March 2021, we had been authorised by the first cantons to undertake our work. It quickly became clear that TOGETHER WE TEST would be an extremely important basis for the nationwide management and monitoring of the pandemic in autumn and winter.

Thus, by the end of February 2022, around nine million tests had been delivered in our 12 contract cantons. With a positivity rate of up to 16%, a correspondingly large number of transmission chains had been interrupted.

Lessons learned

For me, TOGETHER WE TEST is a great success for two reasons in addition to its important contribution to pandemic control. Firstly, we implemented a digital ecosystem that served as a common basis for companies, schools, institutions, laboratories, various actors from the medical sector, and the Federal Office of Public Health. This process was achieved in a very short time, thanks to the pragmatism and cooperation required in a pandemic, hard work, and, of course, a certain willingness to take financial risks on our part.

Secondly, we could hardly have made a better decision than to engage a group of experts detached from the regular business structure. The dynamism and results-orientation of this team convinced me to approach future innovation projects of the Hirslanden Group exactly according to this model: give committed professionals the necessary freedom and let them be purpose-driven to create.

As a private health care provider, I am very pleased that we have been able to contribute to Swiss society and initiate a public-private initiative with national relevance.