Hospital Pharmacy Moves to eProcurement
Press Release
17 April 2008
Download press release here.
- Existing Merlin Pharmacy software and GS1 standards enable electronic procurement
- Processing time cut by 60 to 92 per cent / perpetual inventory functionality enabled
- National Product Catalogue (NPC) reveals data quality issues and solutions found
- Selected as 1 of 3 business cases to be presented at the GS1 General Assembly for 2007-8
Results from the second phase of the Monash Pharmacy Project, which involved implementation of the GS1 System (formerly EAN•UCC System) in the healthcare sector, were released in December last year.
An influential group
Seven pharmaceutical manufacturers, two wholesalers and the Southern Health Pharmacy Department operating from five hospitals participated in Phase 2. Others involved included Monash University, Health Purchasing Victoria, and GS1 Australia. As part of the pilot, the GS1 System was used for barcoding and identification of trade items and logistics units, the sending of electronic messages using GS1 EANCOM and synchronisation of data via the recently launched National Product Catalogue (NPC), an online catalogue hosted on GS1 Australia’s GS1net. The overall project objectives - all of which were achieved, as detailed in the final project report - were to:
- Expand the project scope whilst focussing on ease of implementation
- Broaden the project team
- Ensure improved information accuracy and process efficiency, and
- Lay the foundations for improved patient safety
Time savings Key performance indicators recorded from the Southern Health Pharmacies showed that by scanning Serial Shipping Container Codes (SSCCs) – the barcodes used to track logistical units – and matching these with the electronic dispatch advice messages delivered a 60 to 92 per cent reduction in the time taken to receive stock into Merlin – the department’s pharmacy management software.
Karen Martin, one of the Southern Health Pharmacy Department’s purchasing staff, said the benefits for hospital pharmacies would continue to grow, “As more companies are moving to standards-based electronic messaging, the benefits seen from the order placement perspective are increasing and very positive.”
“Previously, to place an order electronically with a supplier, we would have to go into up to three different systems – our internal Merlin System, a communications module, and then the supplier system. Now, we access Merlin and all communication is directly through that interface. While we didn’t measure the time taken to place orders pre- and post-implementation, I can say that the timeframe has definitely reduced significantly with the new processes.”
One of Karen’s colleagues, Trevor Ireland, said that project brought added expected benefits.
“This project has allowed access to functionality we previously didn’t have. For example, now that we have electronic messaging perpetual inventory functionality has been enabled in Merlin, meaning we can set stock inventory minimums and maximums and the system produces a suggested purchase order.”
Data quality issues revealed
A data synchronisation sub-project involving Baxter and Southern Health pharmacy departments highlighted the need for continuous master data alignment processes in the Australia healthcare sector using the NPC. This sub-project allowed comparison of Baxter’s NPC data with the Southern Health data. For every one of the 97 products compared there were differences between the trade item description or label name fields between the two organisations’ sets of records. Other typical mismatches concerned supplier codes, packaging types, sizes, and units of measure.
The project work being conducted in the area of data integrity and integration with the NPC will have positive impacts on pharmaceutical supply chain processes. “The recent experiences from Southern Health highlight what HPV already has concerns about – the implementation of quality control in data management to ensure data accuracy.” said Nigel Allsop, Manager Strategic Procurement, Health Purchasing Victoria.
He continued, “HPV has already implemented a number of improvement measures to ensure data accuracy in the formats of tendered data, but as Southern Health is experiencing, data accuracy still is an opportunity for improvement.”
Ian Larmour, Director of Pharmacy at Southern Health added, “Accurate and complete data provided by the NPC will be extremely valuable to Southern Health as we further expand this project. This data will provide the foundation for additional electronic messaging implementations, meaning our processes for supplier engagement and rollout will be even more effective.”
A world class business case
The project report was one of the three Winners of the GS1 Global Business Case Awards.
“Selection of the Monash Project Phase 2 report for presentation at the GS1 General Assembly is a great honour for both the project team members and GS1 Australia,” said Maria Palazzolo, CEO, GS1 Australia. “I am excited to be able to showcase the innovative work being undertaken in the Australian healthcare sector.”
Phase 3 ready
The next phase of the Monash Pharmacy Project will broaden its scope further, with potential work areas including batch number and expiry date barcoding, scan pick-pack systems, alignment with the NeHTA eProcurement Strategy, all of which are laying the foundations for patient safety.
Companies interested in participating should contact Tania Snioch of GS1 Australia on 1300 366 033.
For more about the Monash Pharmacy Project, go to:
http://www.gs1au.org/industry/healthcare/monash.asp
