A new case study shows how Mercy healthcare system has reaped the benefits of integrating GS1 Standards, including bar codes, across the medical device supply chain.

The study, "Perfect Order and Beyond," describes how these standards were implemented in the clinical care setting (from manufacturing plant to patient bedside), driving supply chain optimization and enhancements to patient safety initiatives.

GS1 Standards are global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains across multiple sectors. GS1 barcode data on products can eliminate errors and allow healthcare providers and manufacturers to speak the same language with this improved data tracking process.

[See also: Supply chain IT reaps benefits of EMR innovation.]
 
“This collaboration provides a snapshot of how data standards can serve as a common platform for organizations throughout the healthcare supply chain to raise efficiency, drive unnecessary expenses out of the system and play an important technology role in patient care initiatives, including consistency in the electronic health record,” said Curtis Dudley, vice president of integrated business solutions at ROi, the healthcare supply chain company founded by Mercy.
 
ROi and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co.), a medical device company, set goals to achieve Perfect Order – an ideal in healthcare that represents true electronic order processing, from order placement to delivery and payment, without human intervention – and saw GS1 as a tool that could help improve the healthcare supply chain. The organizations achieved Perfect Order by modifying business processes and technical infrastructure.
 
“BD is committed to operational effectiveness internally and in the healthcare supply chain to remove unnecessary cost and waste from the system,” said Frank Florio, vice president and general manager for North America at BD. “GS1 data standards also enable healthcare providers to track products when treating patients, which can help reduce medical errors while improving patient care.”

[See also: Health systems target efficiency with GS1 Standards.]
 
BD and ROi completed their GS1 Standards integration ahead of industry-established sunrise dates for both the GS1 Global Location Number (GLN) and the GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). Both companies continue to operate together using these standards on an ongoing basis.      
 
The GTIN is used to identify products and communicate product data throughout the supply chain and through to the clinical setting and beyond. GLN is a consistent standard to identify delivery locations and to replace custom account numbers. BD and ROi implemented these standards as part of their ongoing business processes, and in pursuit of Perfect Order. They discovered many other benefits that extend beyond the supply chain, including:

• More accurate purchase orders, invoicing and payment processes
• Clean data on delivery locations and account information
• Real-time product usage and consumption
• Better product and lot number tracking
• Improved infrastructure and data accuracy for patient care initiatives

“As more and more healthcare providers and manufacturers partner to implement GS1 Standards, one notion is resoundingly clear – these critical data standards can be implemented now to achieve benefits in supply chain efficiency and potential contributions to clinical care,” said the case study's co-author Alex Zimmerman, director of integrated business solutions at ROi. “We hope the case study will provide a useful primer for those who want to understand the benefits of evolving their business processes and transacting with GS1 Standards at each step of the supply chain.”
 
The case study documents improvements in several supply chain metrics, such as a 30 percent reduction in days payable outstanding, a 73 percent reduction in discrepancies on purchase orders, an improved sourcing of products by use of a barcode to determine the right product to reorder and fewer stock outs due to the inherent simplicity offered to nursing staff for scanning barcodes at the bedside.