Creating Healthcare Reform from the Inside Out Through Supply Chain Best Practices that Improve Financial and Clinical Performance is Focus of 2010 GHX Supply Chain Summit

LOUISVILLE, Colo., March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Changing the nature of the healthcare supply chain and refocusing resources in ways that improve financial and clinical performance in healthcare is the focus of the GHX Supply Chain Summit to be held March 29-31, 2010, in Orlando, Fla. The Summit is the largest event in healthcare that brings participants from the entire healthcare supply chain together to address shared challenges. In its 10th year, the 2010 event is attracting record attendance from hospitals and medical-surgical suppliers across North America and Europe. In addition to keynote presentations, this year's Summit will focus on strategies to lower healthcare costs while optimizing patient care. Specific tracks include:

Is Healthcare Really Unique? Building Excellence from the Outside In: How to create a more patient-centric supply chain, applying proven supply chain practices, such as LEAN process improvement and demand forecasting, to the unique needs of healthcare.

Putting "Demand" Back into the Supply and Demand Chain: Capturing demand across disparate systems and processes and transforming inventory management in healthcare from a system that overproduces and overstocks products "just in case" to one that helps ensure adequate supplies are available while minimizing product expiration and obsolescence.

Aligning Supply Chain With Strategy: For You and your Trading Partners: Aligning supply chain strategies with overall corporate objectives to achieve measurable success and raise the stature of the supply chain in the executive suite

It's All About the Data: Implementation of industry standards in the U.S. and globally, and application of master data management tools to improve data accuracy and timeliness without significant technology infrastructure upgrades.

Can the Supply Chain Improve Your Financial Performance? Measuring quantifiable savings and increased market valuation from supply chain initiatives using the SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) model and shareholder value analysis tools.

Clinical Quality and Patient Care: Supply Chain Leaders Making a Difference: Creating clear correlations between supply chain performance and clinical quality through better visibility into physician preference items, use of comparative effectiveness research and data standardization to link supply chain and clinical systems.

Award-winning Supply Chain Best Practices: Hospitals and suppliers that have received GHXcellence Awards share the secrets behind their success.

"No matter what happens in healthcare reform, there is one thing we can all agree on: We must reduce the cost of healthcare," said Bruce Johnson, GHX chief executive officer. "The speakers at this year's Supply Chain Summit are all working toward that goal, and they will share with attendees how the healthcare industry can and is taking an 'inside out' approach to solving the problems of healthcare."

Keynote speakers for the 2010 GHX Supply Chain Summit include:

• Ron Brownstein, political director of Atlantic Media Company, publisher of The Atlantic, National Journal and Congress Daily, leading an executive level panel discussion on healthcare reform and what must be done to truly control healthcare costs
• Brent Johnson, vice president, Supply Chain, Intermountain Healthcare, on the supply chain's role in creating a world-class healthcare organization
• Curt Selquist, former company group chairman, Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems, on the power of collaboration in the healthcare industry
• Jeff Skiles, co-pilot of US Airways flight 1549 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

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.; Thermo Fisher Scientific, 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