GHXcellence Awards Honor Healthcare Providers and Suppliers for Achievements in Supply Chain Performance

ORLANDO, Fla., March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- GHX honored 15 healthcare provider and supplier organizations with 13 GHXcellence Awards for achievements in improving supply chain performance. The winners were announced at the 10th Annual GHX Supply Chain Summit in Orlando, March 29-31, 2010 -- the largest event in healthcare that focuses on the entire supply chain and brings participants together to address common issues.

The theme of this year's awards was "Your Challenge. Your Chance. Your Legacy." The awards are granted to those organizations that best met specific criteria during the 2009 calendar year, including:

• Increased use of e-commerce solutions throughout the healthcare supply chain
• The number of trading partners with which 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.): Wellspan Health, York, Pa.
• Healthcare Provider of the Year (Canada): Healthcare Materials Management Services, London, Ontario, and The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario
• Most Improved Healthcare Provider (Purchase Order Growth): Johns Hopkins University Health System, Baltimore, Md.
• Most Improved Healthcare Provider (Invoice Growth): Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare, Louisville, Ky.
• My Exchange Order Center Usage* (Provider): Premier Health Partners, Dayton, Ohio, and Yankee Alliance, Andover, Mass.
• Best 50 IDN **: Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals, Columbia, S.C.
• Healthcare Supplier of the Year (U.S.): Beckman Coulter, Inc., Orange County, Calif.
• Healthcare Supplier of the Year (Canada): Covidien Canada, Mississauga, Ontario
• Distributor of the Year: Owens & Minor, Mechanicsville, Va.
• Most Innovative Provider (Business Process Change): Catholic Healthcare West, San Francisco, Calif.
• Most Innovative Provider (Technology): LifeBridge Health, Baltimore, Md.
• Most Innovative Supplier (Business Process Change): C.R. Bard, Inc., Murray Hill, N.J.
• Most Innovative Supplier (Technology): GE Healthcare, Princeton, N.J.

*   Award for using technology for proactive order exception management

** Top performer among integrated delivery networks/facilities with the lowest purchase order exception rates

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

Catholic Healthcare West was honored for business process improvements made across the organization to automate the supply chain. Combining the usage and reporting capabilities of GHX My Exchange with its Lawson ERP system, Catholic Healthcare West developed a system-wide "Perfect Purchase Order" initiative, a program designed to develop standard tools and processes to support buyers in achieving zero errors in the procure-to-pay process. As a result, it significantly decreased purchase order and invoice exceptions and improved the effectiveness of its business, bringing value and improved efficiencies to both itself and its trading partners.

LifeBridge Health was honored for its innovative use of technology to improve data management, orders and supply chain processes. Using the GHX Catalyst platform, LifeBridge completely automated the requisition process for consignment, bill-only orders for implantable devices. With an automated, electronic and more controlled process in place, contract pricing can be enforced, helping ensure the operating room is only buying those products that have been approved for purchase. Since vendors must provide LifeBridge with full details on new implants before they can create requisitions for these products, this new process also helps it maintain up-to-date product information within its item master.

This year, GHX introduced a new award category, Most Innovative Supplier, to honor two suppliers for their implementation of e-commerce solutions.

C.R. Bard was honored for business process improvements made across the organization to automate the supply chain. By implementing a targeted account identification approach using a combination of internal reports and GHX tools and resources, C.R. Bard first identified low-utilization customers and worked closely with them to increase the percentage of e-commerce-based transactions. By focusing on driving improved EDI utilization within its customer base, C.R. Bard is now processing more high-quality and accurate electronic orders that require fewer resources to manually correct errors downstream. As a result, the company has been able to more than double in size over the past 10 years without adding additional customer service support.

GE Healthcare was honored for its innovative use of technology to improve data management, orders and supply chain processes. Using the GHX TradingNet platform, GE Healthcare significantly expanded its e-commerce activities across a broad base of customers. TradingNet also gave the company the ability to transact electronic contract pricing and membership information with its distribution partners, providing more accurate and on-time pricing, which positively affects its chargebacks and chargeback reconciliations. As a result, GE Healthcare has achieved considerable business process improvements that have led to hard-dollar savings and cost avoidances. This initiative has also freed up valuable customer service time that can be allocated to more value-added customer activities.

"Supply chain automation continues to grow across the healthcare industry as providers and suppliers look for ways to reduce costs during this period of economic uncertainty," said GHX CEO Bruce Johnson. "This year's GHXcellence Awards honor those organizations that have truly embraced e-commerce, making it an integral part of their overall cultures, to effect business process change and drive savings."

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