May 18, 2021 – Vizient, Inc. (Irving, TX) announced it will begin implementing environmentally preferred (EP) language into virtually all of its medical/surgical contracts to encourage suppliers to eliminate chemicals of concern and reduce waste from their products.
Vizient first launched its Environmentally Preferred Sourcing program in 2017 with a goal of collecting product data from contracted suppliers on EP attributes. Since then, Vizient says that the supplier compliance rate in the submission of EP attributes has reached 92%.
The new contract language requests suppliers provide products on Vizient contract that meet the EP purchasing (EPP) standard. Products that meet the EPP standard have met the requirements of the 11 chemical attributes and 2 waste management attributes out of the 23 Vizient-adopted EP attributes.
Additionally, Vizient released a case study that created a scalable, data-driven and standardized approach to help health care organizations advance sustainable procurement using the 23 attributes. The analysis model enables facilities to evaluate, monitor and remove harmful chemicals from their supply chain at the organization, facility, department, category and individual product levels, to protect both patient and staff safety.
The company says that the case study shows how hospitals can do the same through a comprehensive approach that includes financial, clinical, operational and sustainable impacts of healthcare supply.