The benefits of electronic trading are well established, but for many healthcare manufacturers and distributors, electronic data interchange (EDI) has competed with other priorities as the overhead and resources needed to implement and maintain systems can be significant. Today, however, the growth that both manufacturers and healthcare organizations are experiencing has intensified the importance and urgency to reduce manual processes and ramp efficiency and accuracy with automation.

With the shift to value-based healthcare fully underway, we are not seeing a slow-down in mergers and acquisitions. This has become a favored way to build on financial, clinical and operational synergies, extend care to a broader geographic area and mitigate declining reimbursements. According to the Q2 report from KaufmanHall¹, the first half of 2019 is tracking in line with 2018 transaction activity for the same time period.

The UDI rule published in 2013 was intended in part to both accelerate and provide a more efficient means of resolution to device recalls. In the final rule, the economic analysis specifically identified as one of the benefits the potential to “more effectively target and manage medical device recalls”. Yet now, even with a rise in medical device recalls, and the fact that many healthcare providers and manufacturers have incorporated UDIs into internal systems, the use of identifiers for the purpose of recall management remains low.

The transition from volume to value in the healthcare industry is driving many changes, including changes in the delivery of care. Moving patient care outside of traditional care sites to outpatient facilities, to communities, and to patient homes means that supply chain will face new challenges managing supplies across different facilities and geographies.

Summit is designed and built around shared learning and collaboration to continue driving down cost in the healthcare industry. The lion’s share of sessions are led by industry leaders sharing their experience, challenges and successes. Time and again, an attendee’s story begins with, “At Summit last year we began talking about how we could work together to find a solution” because solving the challenges of the industry doesn’t lie with just one side.

Rural hospitals are often the centers of their communities. In addition to caring for the residents, they are also typically one of the largest employers in the area. The presence of a hospital can be an incentive to bring in new business spurring job growth and providing an economic boost. The impact of losing a rural hospital to closure goes beyond access to medical care for the local residents but can impact the community in a far more significant way. Over the last nine years, we see the loss of rural hospitals in higher numbers for a multitude of reasons. Because of the far-reaching effects of these losses, efforts are being launched to reimagine and revitalize hospitals in rural areas to meet the needs of their local communities.