The Healthcare Hub

We’re excited to share that GHX was named a Notable Vendor in the 2022 Gartner® Vertical Industry Context: ‘Magic Quadrant™ for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks’. We believe this is meaningful in showing how we help our customers achieve strategic digital transformations and unlock value through collaboration by engaging internally and with trading partners. The expansion of digitization industry-wide helps to modernize and build resiliency in the healthcare supply chain.

In the fast-paced world of healthcare, ensuring the timely delivery of the right products for medical procedures is crucial. One piece of the puzzle that addresses this challenge is the bill only process. While it can be complex, understanding how it works in healthcare and how it can benefit healthcare providers.

“You need at least one person—if you have more it's even better—that has a slightly unhealthy degree of stubbornness.” Robert Hatkins, Director, Procurement and Dock Services, Stanford Health Care

Resistance to change is a common problem faced by health systems when proposing initiatives that will impact how individuals and teams perform their jobs. It is human nature to fear the unknown, even if change has the potential to makes things easier for those involved.

“Not to beat a dead horse but I’m going to say it again. It starts with your data. You’ve got to clean your house up—make sure everything is clean, contracts aligned, pricing loaded—and then you can build from there. If that's not right, it gets messy, a lot of back and forth, and nobody is going to be satisfied.” -Franco Sagliocca, Corporate Director, Supply Chain, Mount Sinai Health System.

 After years of trying, health systems are successfully automating implant orders thanks to technology advancements, greater provider/supplier collaboration and the desire to find new ways to drive costs and waste out of the healthcare supply chain.

There is more complexity coming to healthcare supply chain. This will require support for value-based care and preparing for the continued rise in healthcare delivery outside of a traditional hospital setting. Precision, accuracy and timing for supply delivery will continue to grow in importance. Establishing a foundation that will support your customers’ needs today and for quickly emerging trends is the critical third step in making it easier for healthcare providers to conduct business with you.

Leading healthcare suppliers are embracing the needs of their healthcare provider customers for more automation from end to end in supply chain. A well-planned digital transformation strategy helps to contain costs, support supply chain resiliency, and distinguish leading suppliers from the rest of the pack.

From the first step of digitization comes an abundance of data. But for all stakeholders to reap the value from the output, we need a way to understand and put the data to use in a way that drives better patient outcomes. Predictive analytics can help suppliers and customers support critical business decisions impacting patient care.

The past 18 months clearly have been some of the most difficult in history for healthcare supply chains. However, there are health systems that stand as beacons of tenacity, innovation and efficiency in uncertain times. Spectrum Health, the 2022 recipient of Supply & Demand Chain Executive's "Top Supply Chain Projects Award," is one such organization. 

While healthcare organizations have increasingly adopted digital processes over the past decade, COVID-19 threw fuel on the fire, accelerating digital transformation as a necessity to successfully navigate the pandemic —think telehealth, remote patient monitoring, etc.

When we think about staff burnout in healthcare, frontline clinicians are the first people who come to mind. But the pandemic has also put extreme pressure on back-office teams, particularly supply chain in the scramble to procure and pay for critical items from both primary and secondary suppliers.

Nearly all U.S. health system executives surveyed (99%) say it’s important to invest in digital transformation to improve outcomes and reduce cost of care.¹ However, when digital transformation is not fully understood, then it’s also not well planned, processes are only partially automated, and investments are marginalized.