Fred Oberhag, Head of Supplies of Kath. St.-Johannes-Gesellschaft says of his choice of the eProcurement solution for Dortmund: ‘Our major concern when implementing electronic procurement in Dortmund was to improve the procurement processes for all the institutions of our organisation. In working closely with our IT partner, GHX has a solution which accelerates and reconciles our business processes. The system now includes GHX transactions within the SAP-MM-Module and displays them on our SAP user interface – eliminating secondary systems or browser-based solutions common among other eCommerce providers. In addition, maintenance of our master files has been greatly improved, as our suppliers provide us with their product catalogues. This means that our internal workload will reduce as more and more suppliers are integrated into GHX. This, plus purchase order acknowledgements and later electronic invoicing, are to my mind the decisive factors for cost reduction at St.-Johannes-Gesellschaft.'

Integration into Established Systems
The deep integration into procurement systems of hospitals and suppliers is the basis for the improvement of business processes via Global Healthcare Exchange. This high degree of connectivity enables the exchange of information in real time and minimises administrative workload. For both hospitals and suppliers, transactions via Global Healthcare Exchange mean that they continue working within their established systems, without the need for extensive re-training. Also, fully integrating both sides of a transaction provides the data for a multitude of additional functionalities, subsequently reducing non-value added activities such as double-keying and invoice reconciliation.

Single Clean Catalogue
As the basis for all transactions, GHX has established AllSource™, a unified and standardised catalogue. GHX’s supplier members are responsible for maintaining their product catalogues as they are uploaded into the AllSource™ catalogue. This information is regularly updated in the hospital’s master files, ensuring that the most accurate data are available for product searches and ordering. This also eliminates the previously required data cleansing, as all supplier members use a common style guide. Data from the AllSource™ catalogue are regularly uploaded into a hospital’s procurement system - manually or automatically depending on its preference – which represents a significant improvement in efficiency for the hospitals.

Focusing on Benefits
''Enabling Kath. St.-Johannes-Gesellschaft to do live electronic procurement has been a great achievement for GHX,' says Gene Dorff, General Manager of GHX Europe. 'Our goal is to increase the efficiencies of the healthcare supply chain by providing accurate data which enable internal process efficiency for both parties. This month we have not only deeply integrated into St.-Johannes-Gesellschaft’s SAP system, we have also integrated into the procurement system of the largest NHS Trust in the UK, the Leeds Teaching Hospitals. We at GHX truly appreciate the pioneering spirit of these hospitals, the first of our European pilot sites to go live. Now their solutions are scaleable to other hospitals’ systems. Connectivity solutions for other types of hospital procurement systems are in their final development stages, opening the benefits of fully integrated purchasing to hundreds of European hospitals.' Annette Hoeinghaus, Germany Country Manager for GHX adds: ‘We are delighted to have gone live at Dortmund and are now working on the rollout of our technology across a wide range of hospitals.’

Time is a decisive factor for GHX. Past experiences in the US and in Europe prove that it can take up to a full year from the initial decision to completion of the integration for a seamless eProcurement solution. GHX focuses on a central goal in 2002: Already, more than 200 of Europe’s leading hospitals – Universities, private clinics and publicly funded institutions – are being evaluated for integration by GHX. Even at such an early stage the company concentrates on responsible project management so that all partners define realistic goals. It is because of this diligence that GHX has hospitals and suppliers trading actively throughout Europe, Canada and the US – solutions which are tested, validated and based on secure and stable technology.

About Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX)
Global Healthcare Exchange BVBA (www.ghx.com) is a neutral trading exchange through which hospitals can purchase both medical and non-medical products more easily, quickly and accurately than ever before. GHX is open to all members of the supply chain, with connectivity solutions specifically adapted to the needs of large, mid-sized and small suppliers and hospitals alike - to improve efficiencies and add value throughout the healthcare supply chain. It is a privately held company that was founded in March 2000 and its global membership now includes more than 100 supplier members and nearly 600 hospital members. Equity owners of GHX include Johnson & Johnson; GE Medical Systems; Baxter International, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories; Medtronic, Inc.; Amerisource Bergen Corporation; Becton, Dickinson and Company; Boston Scientific Corporation; Cardinal Health, Inc.; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Fisher Scientific International Inc.; Guidant Corporation; McKesson Corporation; Siemens Medical Solutions; and Tyco International, Ltd.

For more information, please contact

GHX
Anja Jessen
Tel. +32 (0)2 - 761 48 22
Mobile +49 (0)172 - 311 98 73
ajessen@ghxeurope.com

Kath. St.-Johannes-Gesellschaft gGmbH
Dipl. Volkswirt Fred Oberhag
Tel. +49 (0)231 – 18 43 – 24 61
Fax +49 (0)231 – 18 43 – 25 19
oberhag@joho-dortmund.de