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NewsNovember 5th, 2009 November 2009 Carenet Newsletter
Carenet Healthcare Sector Board Announcements GS1 Canada’s Carenet Healthcare Sector Board Gains Representation Across Canada Over 120 Healthcare Executives Attend Carenet Vendor Information Session ISMP Canada and Canadian Patient Safety Institute Team Up with GS1 Canada Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project Efforts To Engage All Provinces And Territories Across Canada Public Health Agency of Canada and GS1 Canada Google Celebrates The Bar Code Carenet Strategy Featured In Global Healthcare Reference Book Member Profile Carenet Healthcare Sector Board AnnouncementsHealthcare industry directed to prepare for standards integration At their October 20, 2009 meeting, the GS1 Canada Carenet Healthcare Sector Board passed motions to release two position papers to help ensure the preparedness of Canada’s healthcare supply chain partners as industry moves to an e-supply chain environment and integrates the global GS1 System of standards into their business processes. The Position Statement for Canadian Healthcare to Prepare for Global Supply Chain Standards Adoption [453kb PDF] supports the emergence of e-commerce in the healthcare sector through supply chain standardization related to the ordering and handling of healthcare products. Areas that require immediate attention include:
Canada’s position is consistent with the activity being led by the global GS1 Healthcare Leadership Committee, which is comprised of multinational healthcare manufacturers, as well as leading hospital and group purchasing organizations. Read the global position statements. The Position Statement for Canadian Healthcare Service Providers [507kb PDF], The Time for Change is Now details requirements directed at solution providers regarding integrating global standards into their systems. Areas for supply chain standardization that require integration include:
The Carenet Healthcare Sector Board meeting also included the recognition of the provincial governments and industry partners supporting the Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project with the presentation of plaques for each participant in appreciation for their outstanding support. The Project has defined the required standards for the healthcare supply chain in Canada while maintaining alignment with global GS1 standards. For more information and to get involved in the Carenet community groups, visit www.carenet.ca. GS1 Canada’s Carenet Healthcare Sector Board Gains Representation Across Canada
"Collaboration with GS1 Canada will enable us to participate in the development and implementation of global healthcare supply chain data standards, aligning them with our plans to improve the healthcare materials management processes in our Regional Health Authorities," commented Guy Léger. "The benefit of this approach is that we will leverage cross-country and global knowledge and input, ensuring consistency and interoperability across the entire healthcare supply chain, while making our own business processes more cost-effective and efficient." To national healthcare associations and organizations, implementing standards is becoming even more important as the healthcare supply chain becomes increasingly global in nature. "Working to reach industry consensus on global standards to enable consistent, effective communication of healthcare product information between all healthcare trading partners is imperative," added Stephen Dibert. "With medical device products being produced all over the world, global supply chain standards will make it easier to communicate across the healthcare system, regardless of the country of origin where the product was produced. This enables significant business process enhancements, global traceability, as well as patient safety best practices." The Carenet Healthcare Sector Board seeks to improve healthcare across Canada through the use of global GS1 standards within the Canadian healthcare supply chain – enabling significant advancements in patient safety, as well as cost and time savings. The Sector Board will continue to drive the strategic direction and associated projects that support adoption of a common system of supply chain standards in healthcare, enabling the auto-identification (bar coding) of healthcare products, improved integrity of data exchanged between healthcare supply chain partners, and increased uptake of electronic business processes – necessities in an increasingly electronic supply chain environment. Over 120 Healthcare Executives Attend Carenet Vendor Information SessionHealthcare Supply Chain Standards Timelines: Are you Prepared?
When asked what their top priority is for their e-commerce program, hospitals invariably answer that they require more vendors to implement Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) into their business processes. As a result of this objective, the Carenet Vendor Meeting was hosted at the Toronto Congress Centre on the morning of Monday, October 5, 2009. As many healthcare providers announce the move to a standardized supply chain and expectations for increased EDI usage, the vendor community responded by actively participating in this half-day session. The three and a half hour session was attended by 128 registered guests who listened intently to such speakers as John Martin (Director, Hospital Services, Queensway Carleton Hospital of Ottawa), Raj Malik (Director, National Accounts, Covidien), (Anna Testa, Business Systems Manager, Covidien) and Rob Bell (Director, Healthcare, GS1 Canada). Mr. Bell started the session by describing the future of supply chain standardization in healthcare, including the introduction of the Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN), the Global Location Number (GLN), product and location information registries, and future bar coding and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) standards. Mr. Malik and Ms. Testa described Covidien’s ecommerce program and their current EDI transaction sets (Purchase Order, Order Acknowledgement, Advance Shipping Notice, and Invoice), as well as their plans for implementing the Price Catalog and Dealer Trace/Chargeback transactions. The final hour of the meeting evolved around a lively question and answer session, with a panel comprised of Nils Clausen (General Manager, GHX), Dale Gregg (Senior Vice President, Ormed Information Systems) and David Reid (Project Manager, TELUS). The panel members were asked a variety of questions, ranging from how to start up with an EDI program to questions related to more complex movement of ecommerce data between provider and vendor. All the speakers affirmed the value of Carenet as e-commerce becomes a basic foundation of terms of trade agreements between Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), providers and the vendors themselves. ISMP Canada and Canadian Patient Safety Institute Team Up with GS1 CanadaAdvancing patient safety in Canada Two of Canada’s patient safety organizations – Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada) and Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) – are collaborating with GS1 Canada to advance automated identification (e.g. bar coding) of pharmaceutical products in Canada. To this end, the three organizations are working collaboratively to advance the Canadian Pharmaceutical Bar Coding Project. This cooperation will allow ISMP Canada, CPSI and GS1 Canada to combine their respective expertise and reach out to the healthcare community in support of an improved Canadian patient safety environment. It has been demonstrated that the inadvertent administration of incorrect medications can be significantly reduced through implementation of advanced technologies, such as bar coding, at the point-of-care. Through the Canadian Pharmaceutical Bar Coding Project, the healthcare system can work to proactively and cooperatively reach agreement on implementation of the standards, moving toward use of bar coding to enhance safety checks at multiple points along the medication-use process in both retail and institutional environments – such as compounding and dispensing prescriptions, and dose administration. Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards ProjectPhase 1 on-target to be successfully completed by February 2010 Phase 1 of the Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project has been extremely successful in developing a foundation for integrated healthcare supply chain standards across Canada. Through the Carenet strategy, many healthcare trading partners, solution providers and provinces have engaged in the Project to create an interoperable framework that will ensure a pan-Canadian system integration of e-supply chain standards. Partners are recognizing the advantages of moving forward on system-wide e-supply chain adoption – namely more accurate product traceability, improved patient safety, operational efficiency gains, significant financial savings, better health human resource management, and anti-counterfeiting and theft control. Phase 2 of the Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project is currently in development and will focus on industry-wide implementation of the standards developed in Phase 1. Phase 2 milestones to accomplish province-wide healthcare e-supply chain adoption include:
These milestones capitalize on the success of the standards development process in Phase 1, with a specific focus on implementation; supporting healthcare facilities in the adoption of e-supply chain standards within their systems that will seamlessly connect them with their trading partners, group purchasing organizations (GPOs), and solution providers. Efforts To Engage All Provinces And Territories Across CanadaEfforts to engage all provinces in the Carenet strategy have been incredibly successful, with GS1 Canada recently involved in meetings in Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Yukon Territory. The outcomes of the meetings reaffirmed that provincial governments view the Canadian Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Project as a fundamental opportunity to drive interoperability, supply chain optimization and especially patient safety across the Canadian healthcare sector. Discussions are ongoing with these regions related to their participation in the Project, as well as implementation strategies. Public Health Agency of Canada and GS1 CanadaLeading standardization for vaccine traceability GS1 Canada is working with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to support their vaccine traceability initiative. PHAC established the Automated Identification of Vaccine Products Initiative in 2002 to improve the safe use of vaccines by incorporating bar codes onto vaccine product labeling. PHAC has been working with GS1 Canada since 2005 to contribute to Canadian requirements for product identification in the global standards setting process. The Automated Identification of Vaccine Products Advisory Task Group (AIVP ATG), a collaborative effort between all stakeholder groups in the area of immunization and co-chaired by PHAC and the vaccine industry, includes representation from:
In February 2009 the AIVP ATG reached a consensus on the use of GS1 standards for identification of vaccine products. GS1 Canada is now leading the Implementation Roadmap Work Group with a mandate to identify product identification, technology, and education timelines required to support vaccine traceability in Canada using the GS1 System of standards. Google Celebrates The Bar CodeGoogle, the most well-known search engine in the world, took time to celebrate the 57th anniversary of the first bar code patent, with its ever-changing logo on October 7, 2009 representing the ubiquitous black and white bar code design. Reportedly, the Google logo bar code spells out G-O-O-G-L-E using Code 128, described as a standard way of encoding ASCII character strings (i.e. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, etc.) into a bar code. Managed in over 140 countries by the global standards organization GS1, today the bar code results in more than 5 million scans a day at retail checkout counters around the world. Since its invention, the bar code, along with the GS1 System of standards, continues to provide a revolutionary leap forward every time the bar code scanner goes "beep" at the cash register. With each bar code scan, businesses and consumers save time and money, with its use now expanded beyond the grocery sector to include areas such as agriculture, general merchandise, and healthcare. Bar coding of medications and assets in hospitals is improving patient safety, supporting healthcare professionals to deliver quality care and driving down costs in healthcare systems around the world. Carenet Strategy Featured In Global Healthcare Reference BookGS1 Healthcare has published its first edition of the GS1 Healthcare Reference Book, a compendium of information on global standards in the healthcare supply chain, adoption initiatives, lessons learnt from implementation projects, regulatory developments from around the world. Experts from different countries and different backgrounds share their perspectives on, and experiences with, supply chain projects, patient safety initiatives and regulations. Carenet is featured in the article entitled Transforming the Canadian healthcare supply chain: Creating the future roadmap for success on page 50, written by Herb Martin, Carenet Manager, GS1 Canada. Carenet Welcomes New MembersConMed Linvatec Canada – ConMed Linvatec is a global leader in the fields of arthroscopy, multi-specialty endoscopic medical video systems and powered surgical instruments. Headquartered in Largo, FL, ConMed Linvatec is at the forefront of technology for a growing range of minimally invasive and orthopaedic surgery procedures. KCI Medical – For more than 20 years, KCI Canada has been at the forefront of advanced healing technologies that positively affect patients, families, caregivers and providers alike. KCI therapies, products and support are making a difference across all care settings in many countries around the globe. University Health Network – Acute-care teaching organizations with approximately 1000 beds, the Network is comprised of three hospitals located in downtown Toronto including Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital. Lynx Medical – Lynx Medical Products Inc., in business since 1992, is a distributor of healthcare medical products including: the 3M/Solumed line of antiseptic products, the NeoMedical Inc. line of vascular access products and the I-Flow Corporation ambulatory infusion line. NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority – The NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority (NRHA) is a network of hospitals in Manitoba, including 3 major facilities located in Flin Flon, Snow Lake, and The Pas. Member ProfileOrmed Information Systems
Ormed Information Systems Ltd., which is celebrating 20 years of healthcare specialization this year, is proud to be partnered with Carenet. Ormed requires their Internet portal membership to be supportive members of Carenet and its efforts to standardize and promote Internet connectivity in Canada, which will ultimately reduce human error, increase efficiency, and save money. Dale Gregg, Senior Vice President and Business Development Officer for Ormed, serves on the standards committee for GS1 Canada. "Ormed has been on the leading edge of creating new transactional standards. By serving on these committees, we can be sure that the standards contain the transactional information required to perform the efficient business processes we’ve helped create." "Ormed is in a very strong position right now in terms of credibility for these initiatives - we’ve been through the trial and error process already, so we know what works. And, just as importantly, what doesn’t." As members of GS1 Canada and supporters of GS1 US, Ormed is a solution provider member with Carenet and is helping bring those set standards to greater acceptance with more transaction sets and more capabilities. "Supporting Carenet is one of the easiest steps an organization can take to help move the supply chain marketplace to better cost-effectiveness and efficiency," says Gregg. Naturally, all Ormed software complies with GS1 standards. Ormed’s current goal is to create standards around electronic invoicing, e-payments, e-receiving, and e-reconciliation. With Carenet’s support, e-commerce awareness in the healthcare marketplace has been raised significantly, benefiting all organizations looking to automate their business practices and capture savings for the long term. As such, Gregg is optimistic about the future of the industry. "Historically, healthcare has been slow to adopt new technology, but thanks to GS1 initiatives like Carenet, and the support of organizations like Ormed and many others, hospitals everywhere are realizing real benefits that go right to the bottom line. It’s a great time to be in healthcare." Upcoming Healthcare EventsHealthAchieve 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. Canadian Forum on Public Procurement The Canadian Public Procurement Council (CPPC) will host its eleventh annual conference "Forum 2009 – Public Procurement's Role during Economic and Climate Change" offering an opportunity to share and update your knowledge in public procurement and to improve your professional networking contacts. Global GS1 Healthcare Conference Key stakeholders in the healthcare supply chain are invited to participate in the global GS1 Healthcare Conference where you can hear the latest on industry and regulatory developments in automatic identification, traceability and electronic product catalogues. Healthcare organizations are able to leverage a unique neutral and international platform to network and benchmark with other stakeholders from around the world. |
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