Sisters Of Mercy Health System (Mercy) Is First In Nation To Implement End-To-End GS1 Standards To Achieve 'Perfect Order'

Provider is poised to achieve true perfect order through full automatio

ROi, the supply chain division of Mercy Health System, has completed end-to-end, from purchase order to point of consumption, integration of GS1 Standards* with its supply chain information systems to enable the achievement of "perfect order."

Perfect Order, a standard prevalent in many industries, including retail, is defined by Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI) as "a purchase order processed electronically (from order to payment) without human intervention, delivered to the correct location, on time, undamaged, at the right price, with the desired quantity, on the first attempt." This process ensures effective use of available resources by eliminating errors and maximizing the use of technology.

"We have successfully overcome two major obstacles - software and standards - to work toward true perfect order," explains Curtis Dudley, Vice President of Integrated Business Solutions, ROi. "Mercy's IT infrastructure now incorporates both GS1's Global Trade Item Numbers, GTINs, and Global Location Numbers, GLNs, to lead to a fully automated synchronization of data with our suppliers."

This is significant because true perfect order requires no human intervention. Dudley adds, "Without standards, such as GS1, and adequate software to support those standards, manual intervention is prevalent throughout the healthcare industry as part of pursuing perfect order. You must have both in place to be able to fully automate the process from the manufacturer to the patient bedside."

Through a collaboration with BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company, ROi has been working to utilize GS1 Standards as part of the process to achieve perfect order through their trading contract. BD and ROi have developed a perfect order scorecard to measure transactional performance.

"Perfect order performance must become part of the criteria used by healthcare providers to calculate total supply chain cost and to evaluate suppliers," said Vance Moore, president and CEO of ROi. "While the pursuit of perfect order in healthcare has occurred over a number of years, significant human labor has been needed to achieve it and this is not sustainable. True perfect order comes from full automation and that's the standard we use for Mercy."

ROi worked collaboratively with its partners, Lawson, Omnicell and TECSYS, to achieve end-to-end integration of GS1 standards in its operational system to enable perfect order. For many years, ROi has been working on perfect order as a distributor for Mercy, and has successfully completed greater than 500,000 perfect order transactions with customers over the past 12 months.

"A lack of industry-wide product identification standards has hampered the healthcare industry's ability to improve supply chain efficiency and accuracy," says Keith Lohkamp, Product Director, Lawson Software. "By delivering solutions that foster GS1 adoption, Lawson continues to advocate for the adoption of these standards to help healthcare organizations battle escalating supply costs."

As a leading provider of system solutions to acute care healthcare facilities, Omnicell CEO Randy Lipps adds, "As the healthcare industry works to fully adopt global supply chain standards, the importance of tracking supply consumption at the point of care is critical to patient safety. By partnering with providers, such as Mercy through ROi, we remain committed to support GS1 standards to move healthcare forward."

As Mercy and ROi work to fully automate perfect order enabled by GS1 standards, the provider will continue to seek out manufacturers equipped with the capability to adhere to these standards and transact business with the goal to achieve perfect order.

"We have made an investment to support the use of GTINs in healthcare distribution," explains Andrew Brereton, Vice President, TECSYS, Inc., a market leading supply chain management software company. "The next step is achieving perfect order 100 percent through full automation and standards, and enhancing supply chain technology to support initiatives like this is key to achieving it."

For more information, visit www.roiscs.com

*GS1 is a leading global organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of the supply and demand chains globally and across sectors. The GS1 System of standards is the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world. For more information, visit www.gs1.org.

SOURCE: ROi