Case study: Louisiana hospital system achieves the “touchless order” via GS1 standards implementation
Based in Baton Rouge, La., FMOLHS (Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System) is the leading healthcare provider in the state of Louisiana. For many years, hospitals in the United States have been working towards establishing a true “Touchless Order” process, a major goal of supply chain management.
The current era of accountability across the healthcare system means that all of healthcare must pull together to provide quality care to patients, reduce healthcare costs and improve the health of the community at large. However, a hospital cannot achieve operational excellence if it uses faulty data. Accurate, consistent data is important to every function within the hospital, as it impacts quality of care provided to patients, the safety of the products used in the delivery of that care and the security of the supply chain. With healthcare’s ongoing reliance on electronic communications and business transactions, the very foundation of quality healthcare rests with sound, accurate and reliable information every step of the way.
GS1 standards Solution
GS1 standards in a fully automated supply chain wrapped with sound business processes work together to enable improved patient safety, supply chain security, and critical information sharing each step of the way (from manufacture to patient use and beyond). Standardised data provides countless predictable and unpredictable benefits.
Having a clear view of the supply chain leads to improvements in every area that a product touches, including inventory management, contract management, claims and reimbursements, patient care and records management, among others. The information can be used for U.S. Food Drug Administration actions, such as product recalls, postmarket surveillance and counterfeit abatement efforts. Standardised data also supports regulation, such as U.S. FDA Unique Device Identification (UDI) and pharmaceutical
product serialisation, as required by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act. Standards also support many industry priorities as well (Meaningful Use, Triple Aim, and others.). At FMOLHS, the transition to Touchless Order has been much smoother than the team at FMOLHS had originally expected.
FMOLHS started implementing GS1 standards with Cook Medical in May 2014, and its first go-live order was processed successfully on July 7, 2014. The order was 100 percent touchless, meaning that FMOLHS was able to create a purchase order, submit it, receive the product at its central dock, scan it into their IT systems, send receipt acknowledgement, receive and pay the invoice, and have the product accurately delivered within the hospital, all without manual entry.
👉 Read about the implementation steps and achieved results in the next post.