Recognized for its wide portfolio of quality products that improve the health, hygiene and well-being of patients and staff, Kimberly-Clark Health Care has integrated to GHX’s trading exchange, enabling it to connect to and conduct business electronically with more than 1,700 U.S. hospitals. Kimberly-Clark Health Care customers can improve transaction quality and processing time, while healthcare providers can increase the types of products purchased and the percentage of their overall purchasing using the exchange.

"We’re always looking to embrace new technologies that help us serve our customers more efficiently,” said Joanne Bauer, president, Kimberly-Clark Health Care. “GHX has more than proven its value and long-term viability, and by working with them, we’re even better positioned to help deliver savings and improve efficiencies across the healthcare supply chain.”

Through GHX, healthcare buyers and sellers can conduct business with multiple trading partners through a single Internet connection, eliminating the costs associated with maintaining separate connections with each trading partner. GHX also enables participants to improve supply chain efficiencies by automating manual processes and reducing purchase order errors associated with lack of buyer and seller product data synchronization.

Suppliers such as Kimberly-Clark Health Care publish and verify product data in GHX’s AllSource™ content repository, and healthcare purchasers can use services from the GHX Content Center to ensure that their product data matches that of suppliers. GHX’s Report Source tool identifies pricing discrepancies, while providing healthcare buyers with real time status of their orders and summaries of their purchasing history.

“GHX is proud to have Kimberly-Clark Health Care among its growing list of medical suppliers. This is even more important news to our provider community, many of whom already purchase protective apparel and medical devices from Kimberly-Clark,” says GHX Chief Executive Officer Mike Mahoney. “Now, they can purchase those products more efficiently.”

Mahoney adds that Kimberly-Clark’s success in using industry standards to improve buyer-seller data synchronization in the retail marketplace will strengthen GHX’s current efforts to introduce similar efficiencies in healthcare. Kimberly-Clark is participating in a collaborative effort between GHX and its provider and supplier participants to expand the use of universal product numbers for medical-surgical products. Kimberly-Clark Health Care joins more than 145 suppliers already conducting business through GHX.

About Kimberly-Clark Health Care
Every day, one in four people around the world trust Kimberly-Clark brands to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. Healthcare providers depend on Kimberly-Clark Health Care for a broad portfolio of products that help protect both patients and those who care for them. This $1 billion global enterprise manufactures and markets sterilization wrap and pouches, along with surgical drapes, gowns, personal protective apparel, face masks and gloves, providing head-to-toe protection for healthcare workers. Beyond protective apparel, the company is also a leader in several medical device categories. These include closed suction systems for respiratory care, enteral feeding systems, patient warming systems, and endoscopy and pain management products and accessories. For more information, please visit http://www.kchealthcare.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. The GHX Content Center improves 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 manufacturers 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 Systems Inc.; 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.