All Things Purchasing
In early November we held our second Hospital Purchasing Coalition Seminar in Dallas, Texas. The meeting was opened by Darrel Weatherford, president and CEO of Consorta, who gave an overview on the evolution of contracting models. He painted a great picture of how the large GPOs are getting larger, as we have seen with Broadlane being acquired by MedAssets, and how the regional coalitions in some ways go “back to the future,” when contracting for supplies and services were done more locally than nationally.
The meeting proceeded with presentations by Jon Pruitt of the Texas Purchasing Coalition, Tim Rezash with the Child Health Corporation of America, Mark Combs from Catholic Contracting Group, Steve Carpenter of Colonial Regional and Diane Ashley of Seagate Alliance.
It amazes me how these organizations are able to gain efficiencies by aggregating their members’ purchasing volume, and the incredible success they have in providing savings. It also amazes me how their strategies and objectives vary greatly from organization to organization.
On the second day of the meeting, Mark Dozier of the Upper Midwest SCS (and Mayo Health System) discussed the success they have had serving their 35 members, consisting of 112 hospitals comprising $3.3 billion in supply chain spend. It was incredible hearing how they have gone about saving millions in spend for their members!
Purchasing coalitions seem to be gaining more momentum every day. I think they will be interesting to watch in 2011 and beyond. Be sure to keep an eye on the Journal of Healthcare Contracting as we profile different purchasing coalitions each issue.
As always thanks for reading this issue of the Journal of Healthcare Contracting.
