Healthcare Supply Chain Leaders and Visionaries Honored at 15th Annual GHXcellence Awards

At the 2015 GHX Healthcare Supply Chain Summit in Phoenix, GHX today announced the winners of its 15^th Annual GHXcellence Awards, which recognize the leaders and visionaries that are leveraging supply chain automation to remove waste, cut costs and improve patient care.

This year’s winners represent the best and the brightest in healthcare supply chain innovation and success. GHX selected the winners based on quantifiable performance metrics around success in automating business processes, including increases in POs and number of trading partners. This year’s winners include:

Supply Chain Leadership Award – Jay Kirkpatrick, CEO, MidAmerica Region, HealthTrust: This award recognizes an individual who is transforming the supply chain through groundbreaking uses of technology and collaboration. This focus led Healthcare Corporation of America and HealthTrust Purchasing Group to the highest levels of automation and data synchronization within the GHX customer base. As the CEO, MidAmerica Region of HealthTrust and former president of AHRMM, Jay Kirkpatrick is the embodiment of a leader who is passionate about healthcare. Kirkpatrick is a staunch advocate for healthcare trading partners to have a shared vision, and has worked diligently to promote the use of innovative technology, collaboration and ongoing education between providers and suppliers to improve supply chain operations – and to benefit the healthcare industry as a whole.

U.S. Healthcare Provider of the Year: Large Organization – Baptist Health: A longtime partner of GHX, Baptist Health of Jacksonville, Florida, has focused not only on automating its own supply chain, but also on promoting the supply chain’s value in driving down healthcare costs across the industry. Despite being a veteran of supply chain automation, Baptist still finds areas for continuous improvement and has realized a 19 percent growth rate in PO and invoice trading partners, expanded to more than $108 million in PO and invoice volume and seen an 84 percent contract hit rate in the past year alone.

U.S. Healthcare Supplier of the Year: Large Organization – Medtronic: Committed to improving the lives of people through medical technology, Medtronic was chosen due to its outstanding growth rates and working closely with their provider partners. Medtronic has experienced a year-over-year growth rate of 18 percent in POs, 20 percent in invoices and 24 percent in advanced ship notices transacted. In addition, Medtronic has consolidated channels through the integration of thousands of hospitals and driven impressive supply chain automation across its cardiac, vascular and restorative therapies groups.

"This year’s GHX Healthcare Supply Chain Summit theme is ‘Together…For Better Healthcare,’ and all of the GHXcellence Award winners demonstrate how real-world collaboration among trading partners is one of the most important keys to supply chain success,” said Bruce Johnson, president and CEO, GHX. “Healthcare industry transformation is happening today – and the supply chain is often the backbone of that change. I am honored to recognize the people who are facilitating that transformation with supply chain automation, visibility and innovation. This not only helps cut costs and improves the bottom line, it also enables better patient care. Congratulations to this year’s winners!"

Additional GHXcellence Award winners are:

• #1 IDN from GHX Best 50 – UCSF Medical Center: The “GHX Best 50” recognizes the top 50 of 4,000 provider organizations that have the best performance measurements based on key metrics from the GHX Provider Scorecard. For the second year, UCSF Medical Center has ranked number one on the list due to its unparalleled culture that emphasizes ongoing performance improvements and lowering costs through supply chain automation.
• Canadian Healthcare Provider of the Year – Plexxus: A not-for-profit shared-services organization based in Ontario, Plexxus was recognized for growing its EDI connections by 70 percent, increasing its PO-line transactions by 34 percent (26 percent higher than the industry average) and setting a market-wide example for exemplary supply chain visibility.
• Canadian Healthcare Supplier of the Year – ConMed Canada: A supplier of high-quality medical products, Quebec-based ConMed Canada has undergone a supply chain transformation in the past year. Working with GHX to automate its supply chain, ConMed today has achieved outstanding transaction improvements with its customers, including more than 100 percent PO and PO-line growth and 200 percent invoice growth. Its trading-partner connections also grew by 677 percent.
• European Union Healthcare Supplier of the Year – B. Braun Melsungen AG: Germany-based B. Braun is a global supplier of anesthesia, cardiology and other medical products, and was recognized by GHX for its strong transactional growth across Europe. By optimizing its business operations with GHX solutions and increasing its trading partners by more than 35 percent, B. Braun has experienced a 27 percent transactional growth rate in the past year.
• Industry Impact Supplier for Credentialing – Covidien: As one of the world’s premier medical technology and services companies, Covidien (now part of Medtronic) has leveraged GHX Vendormate solutions to increase compliance, streamline credentialing and develop strong relationships with providers. Covidien created a single online database for managing all documents required by hospitals, and subsequently saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and freed up thousands of hours per year previously spent on credentialing.
• U.S. Healthcare Provider of the Year: Small- to Mid-Sized Organization – Crouse Hospital: An early adopter of GHX solutions, Syracuse, N.Y.-based Crouse Hospital is widely recognized for its high level of supply chain automation. Crouse’s strong vendor-partner relationships is one of the many reasons for its success, including having more than $44 million in PO and invoice volume and a contract hit rate well above the industry average.
• U.S. Healthcare Supplier of the Year: Small- to Mid-Sized Organization – Intuitive Surgical: The creators of the da Vinci© Surgical System for robotic-assisted, minimally invasive surgery, Sunnyvale, Calif.’s Intuitive Surgical was honored for its successful project to consolidate supply chain operations by focusing on increasing EDI utilization. The company has experienced more than 120 percent growth in POs, 100 percent growth in invoices, a seven percent, year-over-year reduction in discrepancies and a 173 percent increase in trading partners.

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. In November 2014, GHX acquired Vendormate, a leader in vendor credentialing and procurement cycle management software and services for healthcare providers and suppliers. For more information, visit www.ghx.com and The Healthcare Hub.