Saskatchewan Health Sector Teams With GHX to Transform Healthcare Facilities' Supply Chains, Cut Costs

TORONTO and REGINA, Saskatchewan, March 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Shared Services Saskatchewan (3sHealth), on behalf of the 12 Saskatchewan Regional Health Authorities (RHAs), has teamed with GHX to help consolidate and streamline its members' supply chain operations, setting the stage for sustained cost reductions. 3sHealth estimates the provincial health sector can save at least $5 million per year using a combination of GHX e-commerce and related supply chain technology solutions.

Under its contract with 3sHealth, GHX will deliver a suite of supply chain management solutions and a supply chain performance dashboard. It also will provide project management and coordination and other consulting services through GHX Business Solutions.

3sHealth joins Alberta Health Services, Champlain Health Supply Services, PROcure and Shared Support Services Southeastern Ontario (3SO) in employing a collaborative shared services organization model and choosing GHX to help engineer the transformation.

The Saskatchewan health sector recognized that it faced several supply chain challenges, including a lack of requisition and invoice automation. Each of the RHAs manages its own spending, operating on different MMIS/ERP systems - in addition to manually maintaining national group purchasing organization (GPO), provincial and local contracts, as well as item masters and product catalogues.

"Our past business process did not provide adequate forecasting of hard-dollar cost savings, the ability to measure those savings or the opportunity to streamline operations," said Andrew Will, 3sHealth chief executive officer. "That, in turn, hindered contract compliance. Our goal is to take a progressive approach to creating value and efficiency and to position ourselves for additional cost savings in collaboration with other provinces. Efficiencies realized in the administrative area can be reinvested in patient-focused care."

Specifically, GHX will provide an integrated platform for e-commerce comprising data clean-up and management; price validation; a virtual database of items purchased by healthcare providers, reducing duplication; an industry database of supplier catalogues of available products; a listing of current supplier contracts; and an invoice automation service that will help enable invoices to become electronic.

Will said 75 percent of the users in Saskatchewan are live on the system and are purchasing and validating contract pricing on their orders. The project is expected to be completed by mid-2012. "Standardizing the data and implementing the GHX technologies have required change on the part of the health system, but employees have been able to manage that change effectively and the leadership is confident that long-term efficiencies and cost reductions will be realized," he said.

The advantages of the GHX end-to-end procurement solution being implemented in the province include:

• Leverages existing electronic purchasing systems in the province, meaning no system replacement costs will have to be incurred
• Provides a common item listing for the entire province
• Provides better/consistent data and helps serve as a foundation for additional collaboration and cost savings opportunities in other provinces
• Provides standard business intelligence reports that help measure the effectiveness of the entire system
• Provides real-time data to aid users in identifying problems and taking proactive measures to address them as they happen
• Reduces costs and has a proven return on investment
• Allows for immediate savings that can help fund the project because of the speed of implementation

"The health sector in Saskatchewan has collectively embraced through 3sHealth the opportunity to use proven supply chain technology and solutions for the good of the entire system," said Nils Clausen, general manager, GHX Canada. "They also hope to be able to gain even greater cost savings and process efficiencies by reaching outside their boundaries to collaborate with other provinces and large regions that have already begun the journey to make their supply chains a strategic asset."

About GHX
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX), a healthcare technology and services company, helps reduce the cost of doing business in healthcare by enabling better supply chain management. GHX makes it easier for hospitals, other healthcare providers and the suppliers that do business with them to drive cost and inefficiency out of their processes. Working with GHX, the healthcare organizations that make up the GHX Global Network are on track to save $5 billion by 2014—savings that can be reinvested in other areas of healthcare delivery. GHX is owned by organizations on both the buy and sell side of the healthcare supply chain, including some of the largest companies in the world. Find GHX on the Web, on Twitter @GHX_LLC and on Facebook @GHX.

About 3sHealth
3sHealth is a non-profit, non-government corporation that provides province-wide shared services to support a high performing, sustainable, patient- and family-centred health system in Saskatchewan. Visit www.3shealth.ca for more information.

SOURCE GHX