Order Intelligence from GHX is making a significant value impact for healthcare’s suppliers a year after being deployed across the industry. Suppliers using the solution are reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings and avoided costs as a result of the Order Intelligence tool’s ability to improve the accuracy of orders processed and reductions in errors before products are shipped.
Order Intelligence, which works as part of GHX Exchange Services solutions, helps healthcare suppliers avoid errors with both medical-surgical orders and complex implantable device consignment orders by synchronizing supplier and provider product order information early in the process. It automates and orchestrates the process of correcting purchase orders before they reach a supplier’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, helping to reduce costly rework and reconciliation.
One customer service manager at a major medical solutions manufacturer states, “Order Intelligence is awesome, and has been a HUGE success for us so far. In one month, we have stopped over 600 units from shipping, from orders placed by customers in error. Essentially, using Order Intelligence we have been able to stop those units from being returned, and potentially scrapped. By avoiding scrap and the labor costs associated with processing returns – from both a call center and warehouse perspective – we anticipate that Order Intelligence will positively and significantly impact our cost avoidance measures in 2014. It’s a great solution for suppliers!”
Additional suppliers using Order Intelligence are reporting significant process improvements and savings results, including C.R. Bard. “The changes we’re seeing happen in healthcare today are all about driving accurate and efficient business processes, so we’re not only reducing costs for supplier organizations, we’re also reducing costs for our customers,”said Carol Stone, vice president, Corporate Marketing, C.R. Bard. “When we can automate business processes – when healthcare conducts business electronically and seamlessly – we’re reducing costs and driving higher quality for everyone involved. Order Intelligence has helped C.R. Bard process electronic orders more quickly and accurately, reducing costs because we can avoid errors and costly rework of orders from our customers.”
Underpinning Order Intelligence is the GHX Exchange, the healthcare supply chain infrastructure that supports a majority of the medical-surgical spending in North America and provides the foundation for additional GHX services, such as data, price and contract management, requisitioning and other supply management functions. Order Intelligence examines orders in real-time as they pass through the Exchange, looking for certain business rules such as the absence of required data fields with specific information about devices or products used by the provider, incorrect part numbers, or high dollar and high unit size orders. Order Intelligence can "park" the order and allow the user to make appropriate corrections before the order goes into the supplier’s ERP system.
"The GHX Exchange processes approximately $56 billion in transactions per year and continues to grow as more trading partners do business electronically," said Derek Smith, chief commercial officer, GHX. “Electronic document processing is growing significantly as purchase orders are now accompanied by other related documents, including invoices, purchase order acknowledgements, advance ship notices and more – helping to drive healthcare toward a more automated business environment. This represents a growing need for greater accuracy of information. Order Intelligence is adding tremendous value for suppliers. Those who have already been using it to process their medical-surgical orders are now seeing additional savings and other benefits as they receive more complex order types electronically through the Exchange – taking their order automation processes to new levels of efficiency for all types of orders.”
Members of the GHX Global Network include over 10,000 healthcare suppliers transacting business with over 4,200 hospitals in North America via the GHX Exchange. First deployed in 2000, the GHX Exchange has since established more than 360,000 unique trading partner relationships. Over the past four years the Exchange and related services like Order Intelligence have helped participants in the GHX Global Network to take over $4 billion out of the cost of healthcare, making significant progress toward the GHX five-year goal of $5 billion in cost reductions.
About GHX
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) is driving costs out of healthcare by transforming the healthcare supply chain. Working with providers and suppliers, GHX is accelerating change by providing a faster, more efficient and collaborative supply chain that will take billions of dollars out of the cost of healthcare. For more information, visit www.ghx.com and The Healthcare Hub.