Amerinet Member Takes Leadership Role in Embracing GS1 Standards

St. Louis, Mo. (PRWEB) November 09, 2011

Amerinet Inc., a leading national healthcare solutions organization, today announced member Intermountain Healthcare, a non-profit health system based in Salt Lake City, Utah, has become an exemplary leader in the implementation of GS1 standards, a supply chain standardization initiative which will significantly improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and enhance patient safety.

GS1 Standards – including Global Location Numbers (GLNs), the 13-digit number used to identify any legal entity/trading partner, and Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), the GS1 System Identification Number that uniquely identifies trade items at all levels of packaging and the relationship with a Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) Data Pool ensures that all supply-chain partners are using identical, up-to-date, reliable data.

Not only has the organization taken ownership of its GLNs and completed reconciliation and testing with a number of key suppliers, but is already preparing for the industry-wide initiative to adopt GTIN by December 31, 2012.

Cynthia Shumway, manager of supply chain systems and information at Intermountain, emphasized the importance of organizations taking ownership of their data:

“As a provider, we felt it was important to own our data and not have to rely on a third party. Nobody else can be responsible for knowing who we are. Intermountain believes in GS1 and the efficiencies that will be gained across the supply chain. All sides of the industry – providers, suppliers, distributors and GPOs – can benefit from standardization. That’s why everyone needs to take an active role to achieve this goal for the industry.”

Intermountain is seeing the fruits of its labor through the efficiency that’s been gained by not having to maintain the 15,147 different account numbers it had on file with various suppliers. Additionally, the organization anticipates enhanced benefits with more accurate price loads between all parties, which reduce purchasing and payables touch points. Group purchasing organization (GPO) contract pricing gets easily lost in the system link between the provider, the distributor and the manufacturer.

Educating providers and suppliers on the importance of GS1 Standards is a role that Intermountain will continue to embrace. In fact, the organization is an active member of the Healthcare Transformation Group (HTG) which is comprised of highly influential healthcare provider IDNs who are committed to pushing this initiative forward.

Shumway concluded, “Intermountain believes in GS1 and felt we needed to be a leader in this initiative to help build momentum and adoption across the industry.”

Amerinet has also been a dedicated leader in driving the GS1 Standards initiative with members and supplier partners, proactively funding and obtaining GLNs for members for the past five years and working with suppliers to implement the use of GLNs and GTINs.

About Amerinet
As a leading national healthcare solutions organization, Amerinet collaborates with acute and non-acute care providers to create and deliver unique solutions through performance improvement resources, guidance and ongoing support. With better product standardization and utilization, new financial tools beyond contracting and alliances that help lower costs, raise revenue and champion quality, Amerinet enriches healthcare delivery for its members and the communities they serve. To learn more about how Amerinet can help you successfully navigate the future of healthcare reform, visit http://www.amerinet-gpo.com.

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