Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) today shared a recap of its Summit 20 Digital Connect conference, a digital reimagination of GHX's annual Summit conference, which for two decades has assembled hundreds of healthcare industry leaders from the provider, supplier, distributor and GPO communities to explore ways to create a more collaborative and resilient supply chain. During the event, which concluded on October 29, GHX also polled participants on their organizations’ readiness on critical issues such as the continued response to COVID-19, the clinically integrated supply chain, data maturity and the shift to a cloud-based ERP.
Over the course of the two-part event, more than 1,000 attendees participated in 18 weekly Summit Satellite breakout sessions and five keynote sessions during the Summit LIVE event, featuring GHX executives and other industry thought leaders. One participant, Renée McIntyre, BA, CSCMP, Director, Supply Chain, TransForm Shared Service Organization, commented “What a great virtual event! Definitely missed being in person this year – but your team certainly created a great virtual event!”
Summit 20 Attendees Share Perspectives on Timely Issues
Attendees responded to polling throughout the Summit 20 Digital Connect conference on a variety of healthcare trends. Six interesting data points included:
1. Organizations Prepare, Go Local to Create a More Resilient COVID-19 Supply Chain
When asked about their organization’s level of readiness to tackle a second wave of COVID-19, nearly 36% of respondents say they’re prepared to face the challenge. Another 57% report having a “pretty good” plan in place that still requires “some work” to finalize. A total of 63% of respondents also report they identified and vetted local suppliers during the height of the pandemic and will continue to purchase from these suppliers moving forward.
In fact, breakout session speaker Jeff Jochims, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Owens & Minor, remarked, "What I realized myself through our panel discussion is that COVID response remains very much alive – this is not a situation now left to history. A huge part of this response story remains to be written."
2. Still Work to Be Done in Building a Clinically Integrated Supply Chain
Even as the industry shifts toward a more clinically integrated supply chain, nearly 70% of respondents report they lack a system of action that links Clinical, Supply Chain and Financial operations.
3. Organizations Leverage Data to Engage Physicians in Supply Chain
On a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being the highest), nearly 67% of respondents reported their organization’s approach to sourcing Physician Preference Items (PPI) was a 3, indicating there’s still room for improvement as hospitals and health systems move up the Value Analysis maturity curve. When asked if organizations have a repeatable process for sourcing PPI, 60% of respondents said yes, suggesting the majority have worked to create an ongoing, well-defined process for PPI sourcing excellence.
4. Most Healthcare Organizations Still Developing Data Maturity
When asked what data maturity stage they’d estimate their organization falls in currently, nearly 36% of respondents reported they were “still developing.” Only 5% of respondents responded they had “optimized” their organizational data maturity.
5. Progress with the Move to Cloud ERP, But More Work to be Done
When asked which best describes their organization in implementing a cloud ERP, 42% of respondents say they've selected a vendor but have not yet implemented a system and 26% of respondents say they are still evaluating a vendor. Additionally, more than 64% of respondents say their item master data needs to be cleaned before it's cloud-ready and nearly 67% say they’ve automated more than the basic purchasing transactions, but there’s still more they’d like to do.
6. Room for Improvement in Payment Digitization, But COVID Hastens Focus
When asked how they would best describe their current ePayment strategy, 52% of respondents said they are still “planning to optimize” an ePay strategy. Further, nearly 58% said they’re interested in “using a supplier portal to support payments.”
GHX Summit 20 Digital Connect content is available on demand by visiting https://www.ghxsummit.com/.
About GHX
Building on decades of collaboration between providers, manufacturers, distributors and other industry stakeholders, Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) is leading the charge in helping organizations run the new business of healthcare. By automating key business processes and translating evidence-based analytics and data into meaningful action, GHX is helping the healthcare ecosystem to move faster, operate more intelligently and achieve greater outcomes. With the support of GHX, healthcare organizations have removed billions of dollars of wasteful healthcare spend. For more information on GHX’s suite of world-class, cloud-based supply chain and pharmacy solutions, visit www.ghx.com and The Healthcare Hub. GHX has also launched a COVID-19 Information Center that provides a wealth of free resources and access to data and information needed to help serve patients and protect staff during the pandemic.