Duesseldorf, Germany - 29 September 2010

Foreword David Kerr

Listening to our customer is critical to GHX’s success. This is why we take the opportunity to host several events across Europe where we can connect, network and listen to our customers. In the UK we are engaged in a regular exchange with our users in regional User Groups and our Product Council to get critical market input. In the Netherlands we are holding this year’s Client Day in November in our Hilversum offices, and in Germany our Market Advisory Board provides us with market specific feedback for the DACH region. Listening to our customers at these events allows GHX to provide excellent solutions that meet the market needs now and in the future.

GHX is looking forward to the first Healthcare live! conference. GHX is organising this conference jointly with GS1 Germany. Healthcare live! is kindly hosted by University Hospital Dresden on 28 and 29 October 2010. The conference will focus on best practice examples and successful implementations of standards and processes. GHX is very excited about this opportunity to connect with our customers, share insights and experiences and help further improve industry collaboration and increase the efficiencies along the entire healthcare supply chain.

GHX Europe and GS1 Germany present the “Healthcare live!” conference at University Hospital Dresden, Germany

On 28 and 29 October 2010 GHX Europe GmbH and GS1 Germany will jointly host the “Healthcare live!” conference at the University Hospital Dresden, Germany.

According to the German Hospital Federation (Deutsche Krankenhausgesellschaft e.V.) there need to be cost savings of around 2 billion Euros in the healthcare industry within the next two years. With 1.5 billion Euros additional personnel costs for healthcare providers, as a result of stipulated wage agreements with the trade unions, as well as the planned rises in contributions to unemployment and health insurance, the German healthcare sector stands at a turning point.

The most important challenge facing providers and suppliers in the healthcare industry is how to achieve sustainable cost efficiencies while maintaining high quality care for patients. Such cost savings can be achieved through continuous review of all business processes. At the “Healthcare live!” conference visitors will have the opportunity to hear directly from providers and suppliers and to understand the joint steps they have taken in order to accelerate and optimize inventory management processes as well as communication processes between each other.

In the field of logistics, organizations are already working efficiently and effectively. However, the electronic information interchange and use of standardized data still have a huge potential for cost savings. Compared to other sectors, the healthcare industry still has the opportunity to make significant progress in this respect. At “Healthcare live!” visitors can learn from users, understand how they were able to improve data quality and data exchange and the measurable results they were able to achieve.

GHX Europe looks forward to a productive and exciting exchange of experiences and solutions with providers and suppliers of the healthcare industry.

New leadership at GHX Switzerland AG

The corporate strategy geared to considerable growth not only contains the dedication to the business location Switzerland but also to a clear product portfolio and to the development of the Swiss presence. Considering these goals the management team of GHX has changed in Switzerland.

As of July, Oliver Sieber has taken the lead of GHX Switzerland AG. Chairman of the Board of GHX Switzerland AG is still David Kerr, President GHX Europe. Christian Brovot, who joined the management team of GHX Europe in March 2010 as VP Finance and Administration, will also head this area for GHX Switzerland AG. Both are working at the European headquarter of GHX Europe situated in Duesseldorf, Germany.

In order to better meet the complex requirements of customer projects, GHX Europe has decided to support the national companies with central services from Germany. Especially in the field of support this has already been implemented: Customers in Switzerland can reach the central support hotline via the telephone number 0848 000 119.

Customer projects

In Switzerland we are pleased to announce that the Hirslanden Group and Spital Netz Bern now use the Sedico Scanner to deliver data to the Swiss implant registry SIRIS and herewith helps to improve transparency and therefore in the end patient safety in implantation medicine. The Schulthess clinic in Zurich has decided to use the eProcurement system EPS of GHX. Reasons for this decision were the possibility for Schulthess of ordering electronically without having an own ERP system. The procurement system is unified, master data of suppliers are available online and can be adjusted at any time.

In the United Kingdom, the North West Collaborative Commercial Agency (NWCCA) integrated the 15th member Trust for GHX Exchange, in addition to the 23 members already live with GHX Nexus.

Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust also chose the catalogue and content management system GHX Nexus.

Besides the above mentioned GHX is also happy to announce:

• The university hospital Erlangen and Helios Kliniken GmbH have renewed their contract with GHX.
• Covidien uses eInvoice in Switzerland.
• Zimmer GmbH migrated to a new interface connection. This new interface is now available for all European countries.

Should you be also interested in a connection to the GHX platform or other GHX services, please visit our website www.ghxeurope.com

UK developed GHX Nexus is now being used by P.E.G. Plus member hospitals in Germany

GHX Nexus, a UK developed content management system for hospital supplies, is going to be used by 70 P.E.G. Plus members in Germany. GHX Nexus simplifies the electronic alignment of price and product information, as contract data from hospitals and suppliers is made centrally accessible for the buying centres. With the utilization of GHX Nexus, P.E.G. is now able to improve the information flow within the ordering process.

In order to improve the efficiency of the data flow and optimise processes in its member hospitals, P.E.G. has, beginning in June, made its price data centrally and electronically accessible via the GHX Nexus tool. GHX Nexus will be used as product information system by the P.E.G. Plus hospitals as well as by the P.E.G. central buying centre and the suppliers. The member hospitals can access more than 120 data records - for example contracts and price lists. In this way the most favorable purchasing conditions can be used. P.E.G. is a not-for-profit company with over 700 members, and more than 1,700 healthcare institutions.

GHX Nexus is a new software solution for catalogue and price management in the healthcare sector. A cumbersome set of manual steps has been transformed into a single, electronic process. With the help of Nexus all participants of the supply chain can see changes to product, price and contract data at any time. The data is jointly managed and processes are jointly carried out by all participants of the healthcare supply chain via a central user interface. This leads to enormous greater simplification of information, and allows flexible and real-time access.

P.E.G. as the biggest and oldest German purchasing organisation is the first to implement GHX Nexus in Germany together with GHX Europe. “With this collaboration we will be able to realise the advantages of GHX Nexus as an innovative solution for data management in the hospital sector on the German market”, says David Kerr, Vice President of GHX Europe. “We want to establish a basis for better efficiency and finally for a better patient care in the German healthcare sector.”

Further information about GHX Nexus can be found here.

GHX Switzerland AG supports efforts for improved quality in orthopaedics

Founded in August 2007 the “Stiftung für Qualität in der Orthopädie”, the Trust for Quality in Orthopaedics, quickly focused on establishing SIRIS, the Swiss implant registry. The objective of SIRIS is to provide quality assurance of providers, i.e. doctors and hospitals, effectively improving patient safety. SIRIS has comprehensive backing through the founders of the “Stiftung für Qualität in der Orthopädie”, SGO (Swiss association for orthopaedics and traumatology), FAS-MED (the collective of Swiss Trade and Industry associations of medical engineering) and Santésuisse, the Swiss health insurance association, who are all invested in making it a success.

SIRIS allows all types of implants to be registered. The huge amount of comparison data gives providers the opportunity to uncover product or process errors at early stages, subsequently promoting patient safety and preventing liability claims and loss of reputation of industry and practitioners. Moreover, SIRIS gives hospitals the chance to measure and report on their quality in comparison to competitors via a benchmarking. With statements about the long-term behavior of several implants, SIRIS also helps with the selection of implants for respective cases.

GHX Switzerland AG has been partnering with the Trust for Quality in Orthopaedics for years, developing an automated workflow around data capture of implants. Using the mobile data entry solution GHX Sedico, all data regarding the implants can be recorded efficiently and accurately, irrespective of their location in storage or in the operating theatre, then to be transmitted automatically to the implant registry SIRIS. The scanner solution GHX Sedico collects the necessary data not only for SIRIS, but can also be used to streamline consignment and order processes. In this case the respective data is directed from the scanner into the hospital’s ERP system.

In the next years GHX will further commit itself to the diffusion of the use of the Sedico scanner to help provide more and more data for the Swiss implant registry SIRIS. The more data is inserted in SIRIS, the more transparency regarding product quality and usage, which leads effectively to improved patient safety. GHX plans several training courses about the application and advantages of the Sedico scanner also with regards to the implant registry SIRIS and the creation of an awareness of the importance of data transparency in the implantation medicine.

NHS Trust offering “better care” following implementation of GHX catalogue management system

Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has fundamentally improved efficiency and reliability, allowing medical staff to focus more time on providing patient care, and less time on administrative tasks. Following the introduction of the catalogue management system, GHX Nexus, the purchasing team at Central Manchester say that it has helped them to offer “improved patient care”.

GHX Nexus is a state of the art catalogue management system, which facilitates procurement processes for both partners in a transaction. It is designed to ensure that the correct product – from medical supplies to office furniture – is made available at the correct time and at the correct place. Central Manchester’s procurement and accounts payable team have used GHX Nexus to improve the accuracy of their catalogue data. This enables hospital staff to order supplies simply and more reliably than before. Through ensuring accurate base data, the correct, agreed upon price for a product, is always used for the purchase order reducing non-contract spend. This subsequently reduces costs for the Trust.

The Trust attributes the success of the system to the engagement of all staff from the beginning of the implementation process. The system has delivered significant benefits to Central Manchester and its suppliers:

• Order errors have been reduced through increased ability to check invoices – resulting in less time spent ordering, and increased accuracy of orders
• Late payments have decreased by 90% – meaning suppliers can have more confidence in the Trust as a partner
• Management now has a view across the entire Trust supply process making it easier to consolidate orders, giving greater opportunity for savings on bulk orders
• The system has potential to be extended beyond medical supplies – the standardisation of admin and clerical staff contracts could save as much as £60k pcm

Second eCl@ss congress in Wuerzburg, Germany

eCl@ss e.V. , the German incorporated society engaged with diffusing the eCl@ss classification standard, is inviting to its second conference on 7 October 2010. Once more taking place in the Bavarian town of Wuerzburg, the conference is titled “eCl@ss - classify your business”.

eCl@ss is a hierarchical system for grouping materials, products and services according to a logical structure with a level detail that corresponds to the product-specific properties that can be described using norm-conforming properties. Next to the data standards developed by GS1, eCl@ss is one of the key industry organizations in German-speaking countries, but its classification standards are also having an impact in France and outside Europe.

This year’s eCl@ss conference in Wuerzburg will focus on the practical implementation of eCl@ss standards and aiming at developing approaches for efficient product data and supplier management. Moreover, best practice presentations will highlight the benefits which can be achieved via a consistent classification across the entire supply chain.

GHX Europe has been actively involved in establishing the eCl@ss standards for healthcare. For instance, the eCl@ss section 34 “medicine, medical technology, life science” is headed by Dr. Oliver Heinemann, Senior Sales Manager at GHX Europe.

Should you also like to classify your product data according to the eCl@ss standards, please feel free to contact us.

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