GHX will first integrate to the existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems at two CHW hospitals in California: St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. GHX will integrate to the balance of CHW’s 41 hospitals in California, Arizona and Nevada in coordination with a planned system-wide ERP implementation. With the ability to easily and quickly create secure connections to a wide variety of ERP and materials management information systems (MMIS), the GHX Connect Plus™ integration tool has the flexibility to not only extend the functionality of existing legacy systems but also maximize the value of newer systems.

“CHW invests in the best technology and services available to strengthen our balance sheet so that our health care professionals can continue to provide superior care for our patients,” said Keith Callahan, CHW’s vice president for supply chain management. “GHX will further complement our system upgrade by providing additional tools to assist us as we cleanse and consolidate our item masters, and standardize purchasing processes across all of our facilities."

“More accurate data will not only reduce costly purchase order errors, but also give us a better understanding of our volume purchasing in order to improve contract compliance and identify new contracting opportunities,” Callahan added.

Healthcare providers can enhance the quality of their item masters by validating product information against GHX’s AllSource™ content repository, the only electronic source of healthcare product data with content maintained and verified by the suppliers. With access to the most accurate product data available, healthcare providers can reduce purchase order errors by eliminating obsolete, duplicate and inaccurate product information. More consistent and accurate data for the same product, combined with GHX’s reporting functionality, Report Source, enables healthcare providers to see more completely what they are buying over time and across facilities.

“Catholic Healthcare West is one of the nation’s leading not-for-profit healthcare organizations, and we welcome their participation in GHX,” says Bruce Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing for GHX. “Given the significant purchasing volume handled by the system, GHX can make a real difference in Catholic Healthcare West’s ability to deliver high quality care while still maintaining cost efficiencies.”

CHW joins more than 1,500 hospitals and 100 suppliers who are already conducting business with one another through GHX’s open and neutral exchange, which is designed to reduce supply chain costs for all participants.

About Catholic Healthcare West
Founded in 1986, Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) is one of the leading not-for-profit health care systems in the country with $5.3 billion in assets and 41 acute care facilities in California, Arizona and Nevada. The CHW network of over 6,000 physicians and approximately 36,000 employees provides health care services to more than four million people annually. Headquartered in San Francisco, CHW and its eight sponsoring congregations are committed to delivering compassionate, high-quality, affordable health care services with special attention to serving vulnerable populations. In fiscal year 2003, CHW contributed more than $422 million in community benefits and care for the poor. For more information about CHW, log onto www.chwHEALTH.com.

About Global Healthcare Exchange
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) provides an open and neutral electronic trading exchange, along with complementary products and services, through which buyers and sellers can collaborate to improve efficiencies in the healthcare supply chain. GHX’s catalog and content services improve the accuracy of purchasing transactions, reducing many of the most common and costly problems in healthcare procurement, while the privately held company’s revenue neutral business model is designed to lower costs for all involved. GHX’s owners, strategic partners, and trading exchange participants are representative of the entire healthcare supply chain, including manufacturer and distributors; integrated delivery networks (IDNs), hospitals and ancillary healthcare facilities; group purchasing organizations and their proprietary healthcare trading exchanges; and supply chain technology companies. Equity owners of GHX include Johnson & Johnson Health Care; GE Medical Systems; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Abbott Exchange, Inc.; Siemens; Becton, Dickinson & Co.; Boston Scientific Corp.; Tyco Healthcare Group, LP; Guidant Corp.; C.R. Bard, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Fisher Scientific International, Inc.; McKesson Corp.; B Braun Medical Inc.; Premier, Inc. and HCA. For more information visit www.ghx.com.