2001 GHX Press Releases

Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) 39th Annual Conference and Exhibition Booth 713 SALT LAKE CITY and DENVER—July 30, 2001—Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) and AristoMed™ have partnered to provide item master catalog cleansing and maintenance to healthcare providers. GHX is a Web-based, business-to-business exchange that streamlines the procurement of medical products and services for healthcare professionals. For hospitals to fully benefit from e-procurement, their item master catalogs need to contain accurate product and supplier information to ensure accurate ordering. Because cleaning the item master records has historically been a labor-intensive, time-consuming process, many hospitals don’t attempt to update their files. AristoMed’s proprietary item master cleaning technology makes it possible to achieve this goal by automatically eliminating duplicated and outdated item numbers from hospitals’ catalogs. AristoMed and GHX provide hospitals a complete solution for catalog cleaning and maintenance. AristoMed’s artificial intelligence technology automates the catalog cleansing process and provides hospitals with accurate, up-to-date purchasing data that properly ties back into their legacy materials management information system. This cleansing step is critical to implementing e-commerce, and is virtually impossible for hospitals to perform on their own, due to the resources it requires in labor, time and technology. The company’s item master database contains more than two million item numbers, including the most common occurrences of erroneous product numbers. These numbers are mapped to the corresponding correct number, enabling electronic cleansing of data. Once a hospital has a clean item master catalog, it can maintain the catalog’s integrity by downloading up-to-date, verified and normalized product information from GHX’s AllSource™ master catalog. Through collaborative efforts with ECRI and HIBCC, GHX can ensure the product information in AllSource is provided in standard catalog taxonomy and standard product and customer numbers, rendering data translation across systems unnecessary, thereby further reducing ordering errors. GHX’s tight connectivity with the suppliers involved in the exchange ensures that AllSource’s product information is continuously updated by the manufacturers and distributors providing the supplies, delivering the highest possible data quality. “AristoMed elected to partner with GHX because providers we interviewed told us the GHX platform is the most realistic and achievable. In addition, we were impressed by its significant manufacturer base. GHX’s technology has the best chance of being implemented by all participants in the healthcare supply chain, and therefore will provide the greatest value to its members and our customers,” said Scott Minniear, president and CEO of AristoMed. Faulty item master catalogs lead to ordering errors, contract disputes, and providers paying the wrong prices for their supplies, all of which require staff time and labor to correct. According to a recent industry study, as much as 35 percent of procurement transactions result in errors that require rework (“The Value of eCommerce in the Healthcare Supply Chain: Industry Study Report,” Andersen, June 2001, p. 42). Creating and maintaining clean item master catalogs can help reduce these errors, saving hospitals significant money. “Like most hospitals in the country, our item master file contained many duplicated, outdated and incorrect product numbers, all of which had suspect pricing attached to them,” explained Jeff Nellis, corporate director of Materials Management for Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. “The combination of cleansing and maintenance offered by AristoMed and GHX will save us much of the time and money we spend fixing mistakes caused by a purchasing database congested with poor data. This partnership will directly facilitate and enhance the value of e-commerce to the healthcare industry.” Since the item master cleansing task is so crucial to the success of its initiatives, GHX was selective about choosing its catalog services provider. “After performing due diligence of several companies, AristoMed emerged as the clear leader, offering a strong technology solution and a vision which aligns with that of GHX,” explained Scott Schorer, vice president of Business Development for GHX. AristoMed and GHX anticipate partnering for their first hospital catalog cleansing project in Q3 2001. About AristoMed AristoMed, Inc. is a provider of cost saving solutions for healthcare organizations from the point of product purchase through its eventual patient care application. AristoMed’s proprietary software (AristoSource™) addresses the complexities of healthcare purchasing with specific process improvement tools. The data cleansing service is just one of a suite of services that AristoMed offers to its hospitals customers. AristoMed brings the interests of purchasing professionals, administrators and clinicians together to deliver new cost saving solutions. For more information about AristoMed, e-mail info@aristomed.com. Visit the AristoMed Web site at www.aristomed.com About Global Healthcare Exchange Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) provides business-to-business procurement solutions for the healthcare industry. Utilizing Internet-based technology, the company seamlessly integrates hospitals and suppliers, thereby improving efficiencies and adding value throughout the supply chain. GHX provides single-source ordering and tracking for both medical and non-medical products. The privately held company was founded in March 2000 and now comprises more than 100 supplier members and nearly 400 hospital members. Equity members of GHX include Johnson & Johnson, GE Medical Systems, Baxter International Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc., Becton Dickinson and Co., Boston Scientific Corporation, C.R. Bard Inc., Guidant Corporation, Siemens Medical Solutions and Tyco International, Ltd. For more information, visit www.ghx.com Contact Global Healthcare Exchange Director of Marketing Cheryl Flury 720.887.7000 Lisa Miller or Jason Rodman BRW LeGrand (for GHX) 303.298.8470 lmiller@brwlegrand.com Jan Jones-Schenk AristoMed 801.270.8616 jjones-schenk@aristomed.com
Posted on Monday, July 30, 2001 Posted by host
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