2001 GHX Press Releases

DES MOINES, Iowa and WESTMINSTER, Colo.—October 8, 2001—Iowa Health System (IHS), the first integrated healthcare system to pilot Global Healthcare Exchange’s (GHX) stand-alone Web browser interface, has begun conducting transactions via GHX’s customized adaptor. With GHX Connect™, Iowa Health is able to purchase supplies directly through Infinium, its legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Both GHX Connect and GHX Axiom™ – the Web browser – provide Iowa Health with access to real-time product pricing, availability and tracking information, thereby simplifying the procurement process. Iowa Health began conducting transactions via GHX Connect in September 2001. Connect is designed to work with almost any ERP or materials management information system (MMIS) currently used in hospitals. While some Iowa Health facilities will continue to use GHX Axiom until Infinium is in place at their other facilities, GHX Connect will eventually handle all of the healthcare system’s GHX transactions. By providing a direct link to GHX suppliers, GHX Connect enables healthcare systems with disparate technology to track purchases and receive aggregated reporting data across their entire network. “The flexibility of GHX’s connectivity options is critical to a healthcare system like Iowa,” explains Dan McDow, chief operating officer of Iowa Health System Contracting Services, LLC, the purchasing arm of IHS. With multiple hospitals and operations in both rural and urban areas, Iowa Health needed a trading partner who could work with a wide range of technology systems. McDow adds, “GHX has worked closely with our Information Technology and Materials Management departments to develop a strategic plan for all of our facilities, regardless of their existing capabilities.” Nationally recognized for its use of Internet technologies, Iowa Health was one of the first healthcare systems in the country to realize the capacity of e-commerce to reduce supply chain costs. “We made an investment in e-commerce not only as a long-term investment for Iowa Health, but also because it’s the right thing to do for healthcare in general,” adds McDow. “We chose to be one of the first to join GHX because we trust the company’s leadership to do the right thing for suppliers and hospitals alike.” “By partnering with all members of the healthcare supply chain, from hospitals to suppliers and distributors to group purchasing organizations, GHX has developed an exchange from the ground up that meets the needs of all involved,” says GHX President Mike Mahoney. “We are pleased to have worked with Iowa Health from the very beginning and we look forward to developing the future of healthcare e-procurement together.” In addition to the Web browser and customized adaptors, GHX healthcare provider members can also integrate through its channel partner program, GHX Advantage$#153;. Through a channel partner relationship, GHX works together with individual ERP and MMIS system vendors (including Lawson and Omnicell) to create integrated connectivity for hospitals and healthcare systems, mutually maintained and supported by both groups. All of GHX’s healthcare provider members have access to GHX’s deep connectivity to suppliers and comprehensive AllSource™ Catalog, a normalized and verified industry standard catalog of products. About Iowa Health System Formed initially in 1993, with 2001 revenues in excess of $1.3 billion, Iowa Health System includes hospitals in Cedar Rapids (St. Luke's Hospital), Des Moines (Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Iowa Lutheran Hospital and Blank Children's Hospital), Dubuque (The Finley Hospital), Fort Dodge (Trinity Regional Medical Center), Quad Cities (Trinity Regional Health System), Sioux City (St. Luke's Regional Medical Center) and Waterloo (Allen Hospital). In addition, some 450 primary care physicians practicing in Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois are affiliated with Iowa Health. About Global Healthcare Exchange GHX offers an open and neutral, Internet-based trading exchange from which hospitals can purchase both medical and non-medical products more easily, quickly, and accurately than ever before. GHX is building a normalized, verified industry standard catalog, which will take advantage of deep connectivity between GHX, hospitals, and suppliers to improve efficiencies and add value throughout the healthcare supply chain. The privately held company was founded in March 2000 and its membership now includes more than 100 supplier members and nearly 500 hospital members, representing 62 integrated delivery networks (IDNs). Equity members of GHX include Johnson & Johnson; GE Medical Systems; Baxter International, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories; Medtronic, Inc.; Becton, Dickinson & Co.; Boston Scientific Corporation; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Guidant Corporation; Siemens Medical Solutions and Tyco International, Ltd. For more information visit www.ghx.com.
Posted on Monday, October 08, 2001 Posted by host
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