Global Hospitals and Healthcare Suppliers Focus on Cutting Costs and Improving Quality at 2010 GHX Supply Chain Summit

LOUISVILLE, Colo., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare leaders from hospitals and medical-surgical suppliers across North America and Europe will meet in Orlando, Fla., March 29-31, 2010, at the GHX Supply Chain Summit, the largest event in healthcare that focuses on the entire supply chain and brings participants together to address common issues.

"The healthcare supply chain plays an important role in delivering quality patient care. It also provides tremendous opportunities to drive cost out of the supply chain through process improvement and better visibility to information," says GHX Chief Executive Officer Bruce Johnson. "The GHX Supply Chain Summit brings healthcare leaders together to address common problems and identify solutions that benefit everyone who depends on quality and affordable healthcare."

With a theme of "Your Challenge. Your Chance. Your Legacy," this year's Supply Chain Summit  will explore how to transform healthcare from within the industry, driving change today that will have a lasting impact on future quality and performance. Sessions will specifically address how to move the supply chain from a collection of disparate technologies and processes to a more holistic system, one in which suppliers and providers can align their respective strategies for the benefit of their own organizations and, ultimately, the patient.

The 2010 Summit will feature a slate of well-known speakers and panel discussions on a variety of topics facing the healthcare industry today.

Keynote speakers will include:

• Ron Brownstein, Political Director of Atlantic Media Company, publisher of The Atlantic, National Journal and Congress Daily, presenting "The Realities of Healthcare Reform: An Inside Look at What Must be Done to Truly Control Healthcare Costs."
• Dov Seidman, author of HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything, discussing how people and organizations stand to gain by dedicating new thought and energy to how they do what they do.
• Jeff Skiles, co-pilot of US Airways flight 1549, "The Miracle on the Hudson," that landed safely in the Hudson River, discussing how learning and adapting to new ways of doing things can help in a time of significant transformation.

Topics to be addressed in Summit panel discussions and presentations include making the supply chain a strategic initiative; being prepared for standards (GLN and GTIN) implementation sunrise dates; leveraging and applying best practices from other industries to improve the healthcare supply chain; collaborating with clinical teams to provide quality care at optimal costs; impacting patient care by improving supply chain processes; managing physician preference items; and improving financial performance through supply chain improvements.

This year's Summit also marks the 10th anniversary of GHX, which now works with the majority of hospitals in the U.S., as well as providers in Canada and Europe, and the suppliers from which they purchase the majority of their supplies.

To view the complete agenda for the Supply Chain Summit or to register, visit www.ghx.com. Prior involvement or participation in GHX is not necessary to attend the Summit.

About GHX

As the business hub for healthcare, Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (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.; BD; 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