Using Report Viewer, healthcare materials management personnel can check on the status of individual purchase orders, identify backordered items, determine actions that need to be taken to expedite purchase orders, and discover discrepancies between the price they expect to pay and that which the supplier plans to charge.

GHX members say the Price Discrepancy Report is especially valuable, saving both time and money by alerting them to problems earlier in the purchasing process. With this function, a provider sends a supplier an electronic purchase order and receives in return a purchase order acknowledgement listing those items accepted and those rejected. This is followed by an Advance Shipping Notice indicating which items will be shipped, on what day and by which method. GHX enhances this data by notifying buyers when the price listed on the purchase order is not the same amount the supplier plans to charge. Armed with this information, the buyer can contact the supplier to make adjustments, thereby preempting problems caused when the wrong order ships or the invoiced price doesn’t match the expected price.

“This kind of real time data exchange and earlier problem resolution is valuable to both GHX supplier and provider members,” explains GHX Chief Executive Officer Mike Mahoney. “Providers don’t have to spend valuable time on invoice reconciliation that can delay payments to suppliers. The result for everyone involved is more efficient operations and potentially lower costs,” adds Mahoney.

Many of these new reports are designed to provide historical data that GHX provider and supplier members can use to make more strategic business decisions and improve operations. With more comprehensive purchasing data, providers and suppliers can better monitor and manage contract compliance.

“Healthcare management has long realized that accurate, real time data is the key to improving internal purchasing practices and working more effectively with our suppliers,” explains Dan McDow, chief operating officer of Iowa Health System Contracting Services, LC. “Report Source provides our buyers with this kind of data at their finger tips.”

With Report Viewer, customers should find easier, more efficient access to the data they require without the delay and inconvenience of requesting a report from one of their suppliers,” says Terri Lange, group director, e-Business, Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc. “This self-serve tool allows GHX to provide customers with much of the information they routinely need on demand.” Johnson & Johnson is an equity partner in GHX.

Accessed over a secure network via password, Report Viewer enables users to easily download, sort and search data, reducing the need for manual tracking and in turn creating greater process efficiencies. Data can be sorted by criteria such as buyer name and/or date range. Drill down features enable users to access more detailed, up-to-date information.

Users can also customize individual reports, as well as select what kind of information they want automatically delivered to them. The Report Viewer tool is equipped with an email function that enables users to send critical line item information to co-workers or trading partners without exiting the reports.

GHX is continuing to develop additional functionality that will provide both operational and strategic benefits to members. New functionality to be released this summer for both suppliers and providers will provide reports related to: customer dollar volume, transaction dollar volume by either supplier or provider, total purchase order by header status, line item status by supplier, transaction analysis by supplier and item activity transaction type.

Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) is an Internet-based trading exchange from which hospitals can purchase products more easily, quickly and accurately than ever before. GHX has built 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 hundreds of members, representing hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), manufacturers, GPOs and distributors. Equity owners of GHX include Johnson & Johnson; GE Medical Systems; Baxter International, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories; Medtronic, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corporation; B. Braun Medical Inc., Becton, Dickinson & Co.; 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 visit www.ghx.com.