Gaining Visibility and Control Over Purchases of Medical Devices is the Focus of a GHX Presentation at Premier Annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition

LOUISVILLE, Colo., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Gaining greater visibility and control over the purchase of higher cost medical devices will be the topic of a breakout session presented by GHX at the upcoming Premier Annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition. Corey Smith, executive director of provider market development for GHX, will lead the session, entitled "Your Mission: To Reduce Costs. Your Challenge: Control!" at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 8, at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

Purchases of physician preference items (PPI) such as orthopedic implants, cardiac stents, pacemakers and other advanced medical devices can account for up to 60 percent of an average hospital's supply costs and are estimated to be growing at a compounded average rate of 17 percent. These items create challenges when processed as consignment, bill-only orders outside of the standard purchasing process. With a lack of visibility into these purchases, providers often have little control over which items are purchased and whether or not they are purchased at the correct contract prices.

Smith will co-present with a representative from an award-winning provider organization who will describe how healthcare organizations are leveraging GHX Procurement Suite to gain visibility into PPI purchases, enforce contract pricing and help ensure they are buying only those products that have been approved for purchase.

The GHX Procurement Suite spend management solution enables healthcare providers to achieve control over non-file, off-contract spending, including PPI purchases. With Procurement Suite, providers can seamlessly access GHX-validated product and contract data repositories through their materials management information system (MMIS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Users can then search for products they want to order, identify which are on contract and bring those items and their associated contract pricing back into the MMIS/ERP system, helping to ensure they get the right product at the right price. Procurement Suite, used in combination with other GHX solutions, can help hospitals reduce their supply chain costs by up to 5 percent.

GHX, in collaboration with a community of healthcare providers, manufacturers, distributors and group purchasing organizations, has already documented more than $1.3 billion in savings in recent years. With new solutions focused on physician preference items, GHX is on track to cut another $5 billion from the cost of healthcare over the next five years.

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