LOUISVILLE, Colo., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- GHX honored 12 healthcare provider and supplier organizations with 13 GHXcellence Awards for achievements in improving supply chain performance. The awards were presented on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, during a recognition ceremony in Nashville at the 9th Annual GHX Supply Chain Summit - the largest forum in the U.S. focused on both the buy and sell side of the healthcare supply chain.

The theme of this year's awards was "Be Bold: Achieve best practice in your supply chain." The awards are granted to those organizations that best met specific criteria during the 2008 calendar year, including:

• Increased use of e-commerce solutions throughout the healthcare supply chain
• The number of trading partners with whom they conducted e-commerce
• The percentage of orders transacted electronically
• The percentage of invoices transacted electronically
• Reduction in order and invoice discrepancies and errors

The GHXcellence Award recipients are:

• Healthcare Provider of the Year (U.S.): Orlando Regional Healthcare, Orlando, Fla.
• Healthcare Provider of the Year (Canada): The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario
• Most Improved Healthcare Provider (Purchase Order Growth): Floyd Medical Center, Rome, Ga.
• Most Improved Healthcare Provider (Invoice Growth): NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, N.Y.
• My Exchange Order Center Usage* (Provider): Advocate Health Care, Oak Brook, Ill.
• Best 50 IDN **: Orlando Regional Healthcare, Orlando, Fla. and Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals, Columbia, S.C.
• Healthcare Supplier of the Year (U.S.): Abbott Corporation, Abbott Park, Ill.
• Healthcare Supplier of the Year (Canada): Johnson & Johnson Medical Products, Markham, Ontario
• Distributor of the Year: Cardinal Health, Dublin, Ohio
• Best In Class Mobile Solutions: Cordis Corporation, Bridgewater, N.J.
• Most Innovative Provider (Business Process Change): Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago
• Most Innovative Provider (Technology): UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pa.

* Award for using technology for proactive order exception management

** Integrated delivery networks with the lowest purchase order exception rates

This year, GHX honored two providers with Most Innovative Provider awards for innovation in their implementation of e-commerce solutions.

Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago was honored for business process improvements made across the organization to automate the supply chain. As a result of automation, the hospital has reduced supply expenses and inventory levels, increased revenue and saved millions of dollars in labor and related costs. More than 72 percent of Children's Memorial orders and 92.5 percent of its lines are now processed through GHX. Automation has enabled the hospital to realign purchasing staff from transaction-based buyers to procurement agents, operating room (OR) support and contract teams that meet with clinicians to understand usage patterns, increasing stock availability to 99.1 percent and improving customer satisfaction.

UPMC was honored for its innovative use of technology to improve data management, orders and supply chain processes. The health system complemented its own technology for e-requisitioning with technology solutions from GHX to create a fully automated procurement process and developed an internal marketing campaign to increase adoption. UPMC has fully automated transactions with major vendors, resulting in a 40 percent touchless order rate including electronic invoicing. By automating processes, UPMC has reduced requisition time from 15 to 20 minutes to less than five minutes per requisition and saved $30 a transaction in procurement-related costs.

"During these challenging economic times, healthcare providers and suppliers are beginning to recognize the strategic value of their supply chains and the significant impact they have on the financial health of their organizations," said GHX CEO Bruce Johnson. "This year's GHXcellence Awards honor those organizations that are leading this trend by maximizing the value of e-commerce solutions to improve process efficiencies and achieve hard-dollar savings."

About GHX

As the business hub for healthcare, GHX enables healthcare providers and suppliers in North America and Europe to reduce costs and improve margins by automating processes, reducing operating expenses and increasing knowledge-based decision making. Products and services include trading partner connectivity, order and contract management and validation, data synchronization, sales force automation and business intelligence. Equity owners of GHX are Abbott Exchange, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; B. Braun Medical Inc.; Becton, Dickinson & Co.; Boston Scientific Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Covidien; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Fisher Scientific International, Inc.; GE Healthcare; HCA; Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.; McKesson Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Owens & Minor; Premier, Inc.; Siemens; University HealthSystem Consortium; and VHA Inc. For more information, visit www.ghx.com.

SOURCE GHX

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