Membership in GHX Health ConneXion(SM) Data Pool Growing as Healthcare Industry Moves Toward Global Data Standardization

LOUISVILLE, Colo., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- As the healthcare industry seeks to achieve global data standardization in an effort to improve patient care, increase efficiency and reduce costs, membership in the GHX Health ConneXion(SM) data pool is growing with the addition of leading healthcare providers, manufacturers, distributors and group purchasing organizations (GPOs). The latest organizations to join Health ConneXion include HealthTrust Purchasing Group and Ohio State University Medical Center.

GHX worked closely with its member organizations, leading government agencies, industry associations and GS1 global and member country organizations to develop cost-effective and efficient means by which healthcare trading partners can implement global standard identifiers, including Global Location Numbers (GLNs), for organization and location identification and Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) for product identification. At the core of GHX's global standards offerings is the GHX Health ConneXion data pool, a healthcare-focused data pool certified by GS1's Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN®).

GHX Health ConneXion enables healthcare trading partners to publish GS1 standard identifiers, including GTINs and GLNs, to the GDSN and share this data with authorized subscribers within the global network. This helps ensure that all trading partners are transacting with up-to-date product information, improving data accuracy, minimizing errors and, therefore, reducing supply chain costs. Furthermore, it provides a foundation for the upcoming GLN and GTIN sunrise dates (December 2010 and December 2012, respectively) for the U.S. market, and could support industry participation in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) emerging Unique Device Identifier (UDI) initiative.

With connectivity to more than 80 percent of licensed beds at hospitals and their key suppliers in the U.S. and Canada, and with operations in nine European countries, GHX also provides services that enable providers and suppliers to transact with global standards electronically through GHX.

"As a GHX Health ConneXion member, we look forward to gaining access to clean, accurate and standardized product data that can be used to facilitate more accurate communication and interoperability among systems," said Bill Francis, vice president of Business Solutions, HealthTrust Purchasing Group. "By improving our internal data quality and standardizing our processes through global data standards, we can better support our hospital members by facilitating more accurate contracts with their suppliers."

"We are always exploring new opportunities to guide and support our standards enablement activities moving forward," said Rosalind Parkinson, administrative director, Material Systems, Ohio State University Medical Center. "GHX Health ConneXion provides a platform through which we can collaborate with our trading partners to optimize access to standardized information and apply it to our existing supply chain processes to maximize resources and improve patient safety."

"The GHX Health ConneXion data pool has emerged as the principal data pool for the healthcare industry, with the addition of these two new members as further evidence," said MJ Wylie, director, Global Data Standardization, GHX. "As an open and neutral organization that facilitates collaboration within the healthcare community, we are leading the industry in global data synchronization and providing the high level of in-depth knowledge and strategic guidance required to support such a broad-ranging initiative."

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