Healthcare Matters

GHX today announced successful results from its initial implantable device supply chain (IDSC) pilot sites. As we have been reporting, the company began rolling out the first phase of its pilot program earlier this year.

With the past 12 years dedicated to creating solutions that help automate the medical-surgical supply chain, GHX understands the importance of working directly with both the supply- and demand-side through the pilot phase. It’s done it before, so it’s applying that experience now to put what it hopes will be the finishing touches on the initial launch of the IDSC –both in terms of initial product features and implementation mechanics.

Initial pilot results at one provider pilot site reduced the number of touch points for purchase order creation from eight to one. Another pilot site reduced the average days to generate a purchase order from nearly five days to just over one day. Additional findings from these first pilot deployments included underscoring the importance of accurate, shared master data to allow catalog and pricing synchronization between healthcare providers and suppliers, and secondly, identifying current challenges for clinicians and sales representatives to more accurately capture and report on the implantable devices used in the operating room. Other progress included materials management information system (MMIS) integration and manufacturer and provider process alignment to enable suppliers to get same-day replenishment signals.

“We define this first phase success by our ability to introduce incremental change while creating a long-term solution,” said Derek Smith, VP of marketing and product development. “What we have discovered working with both healthcare suppliers and providers is that process improvements are critical to solving the historical breakdowns and gaps in the implantable device supply chain and these improvements can absolutely be supported by automation.”

Someone wise once said: “The right technologies accelerate good processes –they don’t enable bad processes to become good ones.”

“GHX has proven its unique ability to bring providers and suppliers together and the value of an industry-wide approach to improving the quality and efficiency of the healthcare supply chain,” said Jim Walker, senior vice president of Corporate Sales, Boston Scientific. “If we apply what GHX and the industry have done with medical products to the implantable device supply chain, we can achieve even greater value for all involved, including hospitals, manufacturers, clinicians and most importantly the patients who depend upon all of us.”

GHX estimates the cardiac and orthopedic implantable device market is a more than $40 billion market with no current solution addressing the entire healthcare value chain from device supplier to hospital or surgical center to patient. The company currently manages $46 billion in annual medical-surgical spend through its GHX Exchange, which connects and supports the same healthcare community that drives a significant amount of the annual spend within the implantable device market.

It was last February when GHX announced the company’s development efforts to deliver the first comprehensive supply chain solution for physician preference items (PPI) and implantable medical devices. The GHX IDSC solution will capture data from product purchase to product usage at the point of care, creating capture capability while helping enable accurate billing, purchasing and inventory tracking. With development of this solution, GHX is building on its capabilities in cloud-based technology, expanding its cross-healthcare solution connecting supply chain, finance and clinical professionals with their suppliers and partners. The company’s roll out seems to be on schedule. General availability is planned for early 2013.

Source: PRNewswire and GHX

—Tom Finn