Area hospitals onboard with new supply tracking system

Fort Smith area hospitals are among those working toward adoption of a broad and comprehensive coding system that is expected to provide tracking and inventory control of all medical supplies.

Researchers at the University of Arkansas Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics reported Monday (Dec. 13) that 68% of respondents in a recent survey are “making significant gains toward adopting global data standards for the health care supply chain …”

The researchers worked with the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association and the Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management to survey health care providers, group purchasing organizations, device manufacturers and others to determine the rate at which the industry was moving to adopt the global standards.

GS1 Healthcare is an international association created in January 2008 by industry leaders to collaborate on developing a system of standards to improve supply-chain efficiencies. The group created a Global Location Numbers and is encouraging adoption by Dec. 31. The numbers contain a location reference and are used to link products to a physical location, such as a warehouse or shelf in a store, or a legal location, such as a company or customer, the UA researchers explained.

"Globally recognized data standards that are created for entity locations are critical to ensuring patient safety and supply chain efficiencies, and to reducing health care costs," Curtis Rooney, president of the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association, said in the UA statement. "On the eve of the GS1 Global Location Number sunrise date, this survey clearly demonstrates that parties to the health care supply chain have made significant progress toward adoption readiness, but also shows that there is still work to be done."

Also, the GS1 standards are designed to meet a near-term federal requirement for healthcare companies to adopt the Unique Device Identification (UDI). The UDI will identify medical devices through the supply chain, from production to placement. The Food and Drug Administration has set Sept. 30, 2013 as a target for full UDI implementation.

“Sparks Health System and Summit Regional Medical Center are both moving forward toward adopting GS1 standards, which will allow all healthcare suppliers and consumers to readily identify medical products with a single unique code,” noted a statement from Donna Bragg, marketing and communications director for Sparks.

Sparks and Summit, which are owned by Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates, are working with HealthTrust Purchasing Group and McKesson “to ensure our materials management software evolves to maximize the value of the GS1 standards.”

On Dec. 7, the Sisters of Mercy Health System, Geisinger Health System, Intermountain Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic announced they were adopting the GS1 standards.

The St. Louis-based Sisters of Mercy owns St. Edward Mercy Medical in Fort Smith.

“GS1 Standards are used by more than one million GS1-member companies worldwide and the use of GS1 standards in the healthcare industry continues to grow significantly," Dennis Harrison, president of GS1 Healthcare US, said in the joint statement. "In addition to helping improve patient safety, the implementation of GS1 standards can help the industry better manage supply chains through accurate data and the ability to efficiently share data internally and externally."

In its statement, Sparks also discussed the system’s expectations.

“The use of a single code system has been discussed in the healthcare industry for decades. Like other manufacturers, suppliers and Integrated Delivery Networks, we hope that GS1 standards will provide a consistent classification and coding system for improved traceability, tracking and inventory control of all medical supplies.”