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From Healthcare Supply Chain to Collaborative RelationshipHealthcare News | August 4, 2009
For most hospitals, supply chain costs are the second highest expense category – and they are rising faster than any other category.1
At the same time, healthcare suppliers need to control their supply chain costs to remain competitive in the face of growing price sensitivity and global competition.
GHX and the Global Supply Chain Summit
Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX), a non profit organization founded and run by key industry players, operates an electronic trading platform that connects hospitals, suppliers and distributors in North America and Europe.
Its GHX Supply Chain Summit is the largest healthcare event that focuses on both sides of the healthcare supply chain. Highlights of the 2009 summit, held June 1st through June 3rd,in Nashville, Tennessee, included specialized, in-depth learning tracks that addressed key supply chain issues, structured networking opportunities to better understand the needs of trading partners, and best practices in supply chain management. In his keynote, Mike Leavitt, former Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, referred to GHX as a unique example where successful collaboration is key.
Randy Daniel, Executive Vice President, Global Customer Management sees GHX "...as a neutral marketplace that offers practical solutions and services to streamline ordering, goods receiving, and reconciliation processes"
Making existing business processes more efficient, reliable, and safe
Siemens – who also collaborates with electronic marketplaces such as Diagdirect.com – joined GHX in 2001 to optimize existing business processes. Besides eMarketplaces, Siemens eCommerce offers a webshop and customer-specific connections. GHX offers a variety of solutions to Siemens, from electronic ordering and invoicing to GPO contract synchronization, charge back processes, and business intelligence information.
Why GHX? Dr. Dietmar Hein, Head of Global eCommerce, summarizes Siemens' approach: "Efficiency gains in the supply chain can only be achieved together. We need to transform the Healthcare Supply Chain into a collaborative relationship with continuous improvement to drive joint value creation for our customers and the company. This will be accomplished by aligned metrics to serve the patient, joint business process innovation and cost-to-serve improvements."
Your benefits from the Siemens-GHX partnership:
- Efficient ordering processes, easy invoice reconciliation
- Improvement of data quality through online catalogs
- Simplification of business processes for product choice and availability
- Seamless integration, more transparency
1: GHX Press Release; http://www.ghx.com/78ewsroom/NewsReleases/NewsReleases2009/tabid/745/mid/2329/newsid2329/244/Default.aspx ; accessed July 2009
