Perfect Order For Improved Patient Care (Mercy Health Case Study)
Three years after instituting the Perfect Order program between BD and ROi/Mercy, EDI utilisation remains high and error rates remain very low. In December 2015, 97.64 percent of BD products purchased by ROi/Mercy were via EDI and 96.46 percent of the line items were “touchless,” accounting for some items that require human intervention as part of the fulfilment process.
The effective error rate during this month was an impressive 1.18 percent, considering that EDI transacted orders can fail for a variety of reasons. This continually high EDI success rate has been achieved without expending significant resources. To maintain a high EDI success rate, the trading partners continue to share master data. For example, BD and ROi/Mercy have established a process to add GTIN data and other key product data attributes into their IT systems before new BD products are purchased.
This means that BD and ROi/Mercy continue to achieve many of their targeted perfect-order benefits, including:
- 31.1 percent improvement in the ROi/Mercy ready-to-pay timing 75 percent improvement in the ROi/Mercy receive-to-match timing
- 30 percent reduction in days payable outstanding, improving cash flow
- 73 percent reduction in discrepancies on purchase orders, increasing accuracy and costs savings due to significantly fewer reworks
- Increased productivity, increasing the time people can work on other value-added activities
- Fewer number of calls to customer service, increasing satisfaction
- Improved inventory management with fewer stock outs, increasing product availability for improved patient care
- The use of GTINs and GLNs in EDI transactions also leads to a range of benefits for both sides of the trading relationship.
- By using GTINs, trading partners can eliminate cross-reference tables for translating provider-assigned product numbers to a manufacturer’s catalogue number, thus reducing potential errors.
- GTIN usage can also eliminate confusion when dealing with products containing multiple levels of packaging. Each unique GTIN is assigned to a unit of measure so there is no need for the healthcare provider to supply a UOM in the EDI message, ensuring that the correct level of packaging is ordered, shipped and invoiced.
- By assigning GLNs, healthcare providers are not required to use the manufacturer-assigned, or distributor-assigned customer numbers for EDI, again eliminating the need to map tables and resulting potential errors.
- Being more efficient and eliminating supply chain errors means healthcare providers can focus their resources on patient care instead of supply chain rework. Also, eliminating supply chain errors helps to ensure that the right products arrive at the right location when needed by the clinicians.
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