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NewsJuly 23rd, 2009 July 2009 Carenet Newsletter
GS1 Canada And GHX Align Canada Highlighted At GS1 Healthcare Conference Leading Healthcare Organizations Advance Global Standards Public Health Agency of Canada Improving Immunization e-Health Records And Traceability Participate In The Canadian Healthcare Environmental Scan Survey Carenet Community Groups Update Online Modules Assist Implementation Of Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Carenet Member Profile Upcoming Healthcare Events Carenet Amalgamation With GS1 Canada Fuels Progress In 2009Six-month status During the first six months of 2009, following Carenet’s amalgamation with GS1 Canada, there have been significant developments in Canada’s healthcare supply chain. The integration of the Healthcare Sector Board with GS1 Canada and the launch of the Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project in 2008 positioned Carenet to quickly move ahead with many programs and initiatives that will benefit its members, most notably:
The Invoice transaction is near completion and the Advance Ship Notice (ASN) is expected to be completed in the next few months. Development is proceeding according to schedule and is on target for approval by Fall 2009. Both dates correspond to similar dates previously agreed to in the United States, supporting a North American implementation strategy. As a result of these successes, Carenet membership continues to rise in 2009. In addition to new solution provider members such as GHX and ORMED Information Systems, new hospitals have pushed the number of providers to over 460 members. Further, plans are currently underway for a vendor information session this fall to educate other prospective vendors on emerging supply chain standards. "The progress of Carenet and the Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project in the past six months has been significant and have resulted in consensus on a roadmap for standards implementation, as well as the creation of an alliance to develop a Canadian registry for healthcare products," said N. Arthur Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, GS1 Canada. "These developments are key drivers to supporting the Canadian healthcare system’s goals of increasing patient safety, improving business processes and reducing costs, while strengthening interoperability throughout the Canadian healthcare supply chain." Carenet Unveils New LogoNew logo highlights amalgamation with GS1 Canada
As a result of Carenet’s amalgamation with GS1 Canada, the Carenet logo has been modified to reflect the organizations’ close partnership and unity in a way that is easily identifiable by stakeholders, the public and the media, while maintaining emphasis on the Carenet name – a name that is well recognized and respected in the healthcare sector. "We are very excited to introduce the new Carenet logo. This new brand speaks to the amalgamation and highlights that GS1 Canada and Carenet have come together as one entity," explains Alicia Duval, Senior Vice President, Healthcare. The new Carenet logo was approved by the Carenet Healthcare Sector Board on June 23, 2009. Moving forward, you will notice the new treatment in a variety of mediums, including the new healthcare education modules– Integrating Global Standards in Healthcare, EPC/RFID in Healthcare, and Implementing EDI – as well as on the Carenet website, newsletter and collateral. Carenet Healthcare Sector Board Confirms Standards Implementation RoadmapCanada prepares for global standards integration To improve patient safety and supply chain efficiency, the Carenet Healthcare Sector Board voted to accept the standards implementation roadmap, aligning Canada with US industry-accepted sunrise dates adoption of GS1 standards. The roadmap will drive the adoption of the GS1 System of standards in Canada by 2010 for the GS1_Global_Location_Numbers.pdf" target="_blank">GS1 Global Location Number (GLN) to standardize location identification and 2012 for the GS1_GTIN_Allocation_Rules.pdf" target="_blank">GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) to standardize product identification. This noteworthy decision supports Carenet’s vision for the future for the Canadian healthcare sector to integrate a single system of global supply chain standards from end-to-end – resulting in improved patient safety, cost efficiency and staff productivity. Ultimately, all healthcare trading partners will operate in an electronic, paperless, and traceable global supply chain. The adoption of GTIN standards will help ensure each uniquely identified product is recognized by trading partners around the world. Meanwhile, GLN standards facilitate accurate ordering, shipping and receiving processes, ensuring the right product gets to the right location at the right time, enhancing patient safety and traceability efforts. The goal of the 2010 GLN sunrise date is to use standardized location identification by December 2010, which means:
The goal of the 2012 GTIN sunrise date is to use standardized global product identification by December 2012, which means:
Healthcare providers and suppliers are advised to begin preparations for implementation of these standards. Training, tools, and resources will be announced in the upcoming months and made available to Carenet members. For more information, please contact Rob Bell, Director, Healthcare, GS1 Canada at rob.bell@gs1ca.org GS1 Canada And GHX AlignMaking Canada’s healthcare supply chain more efficient and effective GS1 Canada and GHX have agreed to form a strategic alliance to create a global standards-based product registry of healthcare products for the Canadian healthcare sector. The alliance is being established to dramatically improve the accuracy and clarity of electronic data transactions used throughout the healthcare system including ordering, purchasing, shipping and receiving of healthcare and pharmaceutical products. This will, in turn, achieve significant time and cost savings for Canada’s healthcare system. The Canadian Healthcare Product Registry will contain globally standardized product descriptions that hospitals and healthcare organizations can use to continuously update their item master files, which can improve the quality and precision of electronic data transactions for healthcare and pharmaceutical products. The registry will also receive data from the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), enabling organizations with international trading partners to access up-to-date product information from around the world. "A hospital’s item master, which stores information about frequently purchased products, is the heart and soul of its supply chain," commented David Loukras, BC Health Authority Shared Services. "If it contains errors, the entire supply chain is impacted. As every region in British Columbia transitions to one consolidated buying authority, such inconsistencies will have an even larger impact on the efficiency of our business processes. This will similarly affect other health regions in Canada shifting to shared services. The Carenet Healthcare Sector Board has endorsed the concept of a national healthcare product registry within the GDSN for the benefit of all trading partners, regulators and other stakeholders in Canada’s Healthcare sector. The Board motioned to continue talks with Health Canada to discuss how Health Canada can benefit from the healthcare product registry for its Unique Device Identification (UDI) requirements on healthcare products. GHX, through the utilization of the Health ConneXion™ data pool – a healthcare-focused data pool certified by the GDSN – will assist GS1 Canada in its creation of the healthcare product registry. The registry is designed to be the centralized source of accurate product information for healthcare organizations across Canada to enable efficiency, cost effectiveness and ultimately increase patient safety. For further information on the Canadian Healthcare Product Registry, please contact Rob Bell, Director Healthcare, GS1 Canada at rob.bell@gs1ca.org. Canada Highlighted At GS1 Healthcare ConferenceCurrent Canadian accomplishments presented to global audience
Leading Healthcare Organizations Advance Global StandardsGS1 Healthcare aims to secure healthcare supply chain GS1 Healthcare announced their newly elected leadership team to guide the sector into a new era of healthcare-wide implementation of standardized supply chain solutions. The team includes executives from leading healthcare organizations, group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and multi-national manufacturers such as Abbott Laboratories, Alcon Laboratories, Baxter, B. Braun, Covidien, GlaxoSmithKline, J&J, Medtronic, Novartis, and Pfizer. The group will address security and efficiency concerns in the healthcare supply chain, including medication errors, counterfeiting and product recalls. The cost and complexity of diverse regulations, proprietary service offerings and incompatible solutions has led the community to call for the definition and adoption of global, open and neutral standards. Public Health Agency of Canada Improving Immunization e-Health Records And TraceabilityAutomated Identification of Vaccine Products (AIVP) project continues its progress In Canada, several million doses of vaccines are administered every year and are currently manually recorded in patients’ health records. However, pilot projects in British Columbia and Manitoba have shown that five to 15 percent of immunization records are missing important information, up to 24 percent contain errors, and 10 percent of Canadians are unnecessarily re-immunized. As a result, the Canadian health system is hit with additional and unnecessary costs and, most importantly, there is increased potential of adverse health effects on Canadians. In recognition of these concerns, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Automated Identification of Vaccine Products (AIVP) project has reached a key stage of consensus that includes the use of global GS1 standards for bar coding vaccine products in Canada. This important advancement will enable improved immunization record keeping and enhanced vaccine product traceability processes. The AIVP Advisory Task Group has been supporting these activities since it was established in 2007. As an active member of the AIVP Advisory Task Groups GS1 Canada – along with representatives from health ministries, health providers and the vaccine industry – reached a consensus for the proposed standard for bar codes on vaccine products in Canada at its annual meeting in February 2009. The proposed standard for bar codes on vaccine products in Canada is two-fold:
"This is a significant step forward for Canada. Unique product identification through the use of standardized bar codes on both the primary and secondary packages of vaccine products will increase the accuracy of electronic health record keeping," commented Amanda Jane Diniz, Technical Lead, AIVP Project, Public Health Agency of Canada. "In turn, this will reduce the number of immunization errors, resulting in enhanced patient safety." Other anticipated benefits include improved inventory management and forecasting throughout the vaccine supply chain, and improved record keeping resulting in accurate reports of uptake for coverage and inventory management. In 2009-2010, the task group will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the state of readiness of public health, private health and hospitals to use bar code technology. The assessment results will enable industry to continue its work towards implementing bar code scanning of vaccine products. For more information, please contact Rob Bell, Director, Healthcare, GS1 Canada at rob.bell@gs1ca.org Participate In The Canadian Healthcare Environmental Scan SurveyUpcoming online survey aims to gain insight into the current and future state of Canadian healthcare The Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project has solicited the assistance of the Innovative Research Group, Inc., a national public opinion research firm, to perform an environmental scan to gather baseline information regarding e-commerce in Canada’s healthcare sector and establish benchmarks. The group is set to launch an online survey that aims to gain an understanding of the current and future state of supply chain standards in the healthcare sector. Through surveying four key segments of the healthcare industry – providers (hospitals), suppliers, group purchasing organizations, and technology solution providers – the resulting research will be used to drive global standards that improve patient safety, cost efficiency, and staff productivity. Participants chosen by the Innovative Research Group within healthcare organizations will be sent the survey before the end of August 2009. Participation in this survey is highly valued should your organization receive it; the healthcare community’s feedback and observations are essential in ensuring the accuracy of the information collected. Participation details will not be made known to GS1 Canada without participants’ permission and answers will be combined with those of others to protect individual organizations’ confidentiality. Results of the environmental scan will be made available in Fall 2009. For more information on the environmental scan, contact Amanda Bell, Healthcare Coordinator, Healthcare, GS1 Canada at Amanda.Bell@gs1ca.org. Carenet Community Groups UpdatePreparing for standards integration The Carenet Healthcare Sector Board provides strategic leadership to ensure the goals and objectives of Carenet are realized in order to continue the advancement of supply chain safety and efficiency initiatives within the Canadian healthcare sector. Recently, the Carenet Healthcare Sector Board approved the Healthcare Implementation Roadmap and Sector Vision, which was recommended by the Healthcare Standards Council. The sector vision is a high-level roadmap of implementation timelines for the Canadian healthcare industry with such milestone dates as the implementation of the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) for product identification by 2012, and readiness to integrate Global Location Numbers (GLNs) by 2010. To assist the community in reaching these milestones, the Healthcare Technical Standards Work Group is currently developing standardized item master requirements to gain a common understanding of relevant healthcare product attributes and ensure alignment with industry accepted standards. The group is also currently standardizing location number requirements for the healthcare GLN registry. The Work Group has also established the Healthcare Product Identification Task Group to ensure automatic identification standards –i.e. bar codes and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) – for products in the healthcare supply chain, aligning them with global standards. This work will also support the 2012 implementation sunrise requirements of GTINs for product identification. The group will be considering how current and emerging healthcare product regulations will impact data capturing requirements locally and worldwide. For more information or to join the Task Group, contact Rita Laur, Director, Standards, GS1 Canada at Rita.Laur@gs1ca.org. Online Modules Assist Implementation Of Healthcare Supply Chain StandardsLearn to integrate standards at GS1 Canada’s Knowledge Centre At the end of July, Carenet will launch the new healthcare-specific supply chain standards education module Integrating Global Standards in Healthcare. This module will help organizations understand how to apply a set of common standards to consistently identify products, locations, assets and equipment throughout the healthcare supply chain. The module covers the following topics:
Carenet Member ProfileTELUS Health Solutions
TELUS’ core healthcare business – traditionally in the claims management, electronic health records and pharmacy management areas – has expanded to include solutions that are helping to transform the way information is used in healthcare across its continuum. The company provides technology solutions for hospitals and large healthcare providers, as well as solutions for community and home care that enable the effective sharing of health information between healthcare teams and their patients to improve outcomes including:
"Adoption of global standards across the healthcare supply chain will result in significant improvements for the Canadian healthcare system," said Francois Côté, President, TELUS. "Global standards facilitate a common framework for technology-based processes, enabling healthcare facilities to speed up order and payment processes, lower inventory carrying costs, and upgrade record-keeping functions. This enables healthcare workers to focus on providing outstanding patient care and service." TELUS was one of the first companies to become a sponsor for the Canadian Healthcare Standards Project when it was launched in 2008. Upcoming Healthcare EventsNetworking opportunities with key healthcare stakeholders RFID Journal LIVE! Canada 2009 GS1 Canada is once again partnering with RFID Journal to bring RFID Journal LIVE! to Canada. RFID Journal LIVE! Canada 2009 has expanded its agenda to include tracks on Traceability and Healthcare, tackling hot topics such as asset tracking of medical-surgical devices and featured session on the new Product Recall System and Empty Miles service. Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Timelines: Are You Prepared? Carenet will be delivering a vendor information session on Monday October 5, 2009 to help educate healthcare vendors on the emerging supply chain standards and implementation of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Designed to provide vendors with insight into healthcare supply chain standards, this session will share strategies regarding how to more effectively communicate electronically to more than 460 Canadian hospitals and healthcare organizations and align with their short and long-term plans. For more information regarding this session, contact Herb Martin at carenet@gs1ca.org. A discount will be offered to vendors who also wish to attend the RFID Journal LIVE! Canada 2009, which begins directly after this session. GS1 Global Healthcare Conference HealthAchieve 2009 – Visit the Carenet booth! HealthAchieve2009 aims to inspire ideas and innovation with over 50 informative and engaging educational sessions along with its award-winning exhibit floor, where more than 300 exhibitors showcase the latest healthcare products, services and technologies. |
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TELUS Health Solutions (