The low-floor tram speeds from Bern towards Worb. In Gümligen, it comes to a halt at the Siloah stop. Since 1956, the eponymous site, which provides around 1,100 jobs, has had its own public transport link, a sign of its importance to the region. The word ‘Siloah’ comes from the name of a pool in Jerusalem, known as the Pool of Siloam in English and said to have miraculous healing powers. Over 100 years ago, a diaconal social welfare home was named after it, and it was from this home that today’s Siloah AG, a regional centre of excellence for geriatric medicine, developed.

Originally, Siloah was a traditional long-term nursing home. Today, alongside the Siloah Long-Term Care Centre (senior residential communities and long-term neurological care), its range of services also includes hospital facilities: the Siloah Bernese Hospital Centre for Geriatric Medicine (BESAS, for geriatric acute medical care and rehabilitation) and the Siloah Neurocentre. Neurological rehabilitation was added to the range of hospital services at the start of the year.

Marc Fuchs, Deputy CEO and Head of Finance & Operations, explains that integrated medical care focusing on geriatric medicine is Siloah’s core competency. “Our patients are treated by the doctors, nurses and therapists at BESAS and at the neurocentre, whereas the long-term care unit provides follow-up solutions after discharge from hospital. This enables us to coordinate all treatment optimally <under one roof>,” says Marc Fuchs.

The Deputy CEO finds specialisation particularly important in long-term care, as not every care home has to be able to offer everything. “For example, we work with partners in the hospital and care-home sector, who treat people with surgical conditions, addictions or mental health issues, because we don’t specialise in those areas,” explains Marc Fuchs. “Our strength lies in geriatric medicine.”

In the care-home segment, fees are under pressure, while costs continue to rise. For this reason, Siloah’s Deputy CEO sees partnerships between small and medium-sized businesses as the key to tackling this challenging situation. He has a doctorate in business administration, many years of professional experience in corporate development in the Swiss retail banking market, and a guiding principle: “In well-structured collaborations, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Based on this premise, Siloah and two other care-home operators in the region founded the association IG Einkauf Bern in 2016.

Over 30 institutions from the canton of Bern and beyond are members of IG Einkauf Bern. They can choose from a range of advantageous framework agreements in all areas relevant to care homes and thus benefit from lower purchase prices: for example, when buying food or nursing supplies, when entering into lift-maintenance contracts, when operating IT systems, when taking out daily allowance insurance, or when seeking a pension solution as per OPA. This also encompasses bulk orders for nursing beds (in 2020), institutional linen, and coffee machines (both in 2021), as well as the operation of a carer call system co-developed by care providers. “Helping people to help themselves,” is how Marc Fuchs describes it. “All agreements are structured in such a way that a larger total volume automatically leads to better terms. The same advantageous terms apply for all members,” he explains. Participation is free of charge for members and suppliers. All price savings are passed on directly to the members.

The contract negotiations and all coordination work are handled by the three founding members. “The administration has deliberately been kept very lean, so these costs are negligible compared to the benefits,” says Siloah’s Head of Finance & Operations. He adds that close friendships have also developed over the years as a result. But Marc Fuchs recalls that there was natural scepticism at first: “People said that if it costs nothing, it can’t be worth anything. So we had to convince people and demonstrate that there’s no catch with IG Einkauf Bern,” he says with a grin.

“If we want our residents and patients to thrive, we can only achieve that with healthy and satisfied staff,” says Miriam Weber, Deputy Head of HRM. But qualified professionals are few and far between in the healthcare sector – and the situation was even worse during Covid. “Recruiting new staff is a major challenge, particularly in long-term care and when it comes to qualified nursing professionals,” states Miriam Weber. “So it’s very important for us to be an attractive employer. And we are,” she says. This is made possible by fair salaries and a positive working atmosphere. “It means, for example, that we also pay care-home staff for the time it takes them to get changed,” adds Marc Fuchs. He also mentions that part of the annual pay rises, which were still granted even during the pandemic, is financed by the savings from bulk procurement generated by IG Einkauf Bern.

The wide range of training opportunities contributes greatly to the positive atmosphere. “This is central to our approach. On the final day of the apprentices’ training, my first question is always: Which of you will I see again? If two thirds raise their hands and some of the remaining third have to do military service, then we’ve done a good job,” says the Deputy CEO. The good working atmosphere also paid off during the pandemic. “We learnt a lot. People helped one another across departments, which was brilliant. I’m convinced that as a team, our 650 staff are emerging from the Covid crisis stronger than before,” says Marc Fuchs.

Efforts in the field of workplace health management (WHM) also have a positive impact on employee satisfaction. With support from the daily allowance insurer V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a, workshops were held in which staff and managers discussed the issue of short-term absences and their causes. This led to specific measures being defined and implemented (such as various purchases to improve workplace ergonomics and a pilot project for non-split shifts in long-term care), which were very well received by those involved. “Of course, some people were critical and even dismissive at first,” says Marc Fuchs. “But we were able to demonstrate that WHM is not about us apportioning blame. From the outset, our aim was to work out specific measures and put them into practice – for the benefit of staff. Short-term absences began to fall during the first year, with a positive impact on premium levels and thus on staff members’ wallets. V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a advised us very competently and helped us to become an even more attractive employer.”

IG Einkauf Bern is a voluntary association comprising over 30 regional care homes, vocational integration institutions, psychiatric centres and rehabilitation centres. Its aim is to amalgamate purchasing and investment volumes and, by means of long-term framework agreements with suppliers, to secure advantageous purchase prices for its members on items such as materials, infrastructure or services. All members benefit from the same prices, regardless of their size. Membership costs nothing and all price savings are passed on to the members in full. www.ig-einkauf.ch.