2012 GHX Summit Buzz: The Implantables Supply Chain
The 2012 version of GHX’s Supply Chain Summit comes to a close today. The party keeps getting bigger and better each year, an excellent sign and clear indicator of the company’s increasing relevance to the industry. Keep in mind; it’s GHX, so we’re genuinely talking about the whole of the industry –the providers, suppliers, distributors and GPOs are all under the same tent.
Without question, the buzz this year centers on the company’s move into the implantables supply chain (which we’ve previously covered here at Healthcare Matters). As a reminder, when GHX bought Beep N’ Track, its stated “big idea” was to do for Physician Preference Items (PPI) what it has done for med/surg. A simple concept to remember and powerful when restated, so naturally, everyone wants to know how GHX is going to deliver the goods. The pressure is on and GHX seems to be welcoming it.
I felt a bit like a wedding crasher (in fairness, I always do), but I did have an opportunity to meet briefly with Bruce Johnson, president and CEO of GHX, Derek Smith, the company’s executive vice president of marketing and product management and Karen Conway, its executive director of industry relations and editor of “The Healthcare Hub.” The operative word here is “briefly” because the three of them were otherwise busy entertaining the nearly 800 supply chain professionals in attendance –the thought leaders who dot the landscape of the company’s considerable customer base.
With enough gray hair in the room for me to safely use a “Paul Harvey” expression, I asked the company’s leadership for their cooperation in helping us develop a series of posts designed to provide Healthcare Matters’ readers “the rest of the story” (how GHX pulled it off; representative customer implementation stories; where the company can take the industry and/or where the industry can take the company).
They graciously consented. So stay tuned.
—Tom Finn
Comments (2)
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Tom, thank you for attending the Summit and for the chance to finally meet you in person. As you know I am an avid reader of Healthcare Matters. I just returned from the Summit yesterday (although I am now on a plane again, headed to Chicago for an AHRMM board meeting). I should be exhausted, but I am quite energized by the progress being made on the implantable device supply chain front. As you wrote, it is a massive change management initiative, but after the provider and manufacturer advisory boards met Wednesday afternoon (immediately following the official close of the Supply Chain Summit), I am more optimistic than ever. As we went around the room, many of the healthcare system and supplier representatives agreed that trust between providers and suppliers, and alignment across internal functions in each of their organizations, would be the biggest challenge. But then they rolled up their sleeves and continued to work on what it will take to standardize both data and processes around the procurement and use of implantable devices. As Larry Strauss from Boston Scientific stated in the general session panel at the Supply Chain Summit, “It’s about having a system [and data] we can all trust in.” The technology is the easy part; collaboration and coordination will be harder. But as someone who has had the opportunity to work with GHX since the beginning and see how suppliers and providers (many of whom are competitors) came together for the greater good a decade ago, I am confident we can do it again.
Thanks for your comment Karen. Funny how, in the end, it boils down to “golden rule stuff.” I don’t know if you saw my second post on the subject, but my head is stuck on this notion of suppliers, providers, distributors, and GPOs “laying it down” and collaborating to secure a higher common denominator. If the starting point is higher, incremental improvements are more valuable.