Sisters Of Mercy Health System Is First In Nation To Implement End-To-End GS1 Standards To Achieve ‘Perfect Order’

SOURCE: Mercy Health System

ROi, the supply chain division of Mercy Health System, has completed end-to-end, from purchase order to point of consumption, integration of GS1 Standards* with its supply chain information systems to enable the achievement of “perfect order.”

Perfect Order, a standard prevalent in many industries, including retail, is defined by Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI) as “a purchase order processed electronically (from order to payment) without human intervention, delivered to the correct location, on time, undamaged, at the right price, with the desired quantity, on the first attempt.” This process ensures effective use of available resources by eliminating errors and maximizing the use of technology.

“We have successfully overcome two major obstacles – software and standards – to work toward true perfect order,” explains Curtis Dudley, Vice President of Integrated Business Solutions, ROi. “Mercy’s IT infrastructure now incorporates both GS1’s Global Trade Item Numbers, GTINs, and Global Location Numbers, GLNs, to lead to a fully automated synchronization of data with our suppliers.”

This is significant because true perfect order requires no human intervention. Dudley adds, “Without standards, such as GS1, and adequate software to support those standards, manual intervention is prevalent throughout the healthcare industry as part of pursuing perfect order. You must have both in place to be able to fully automate the process from the manufacturer to the patient bedside.”

Through a collaboration with BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company, ROi has been working to utilize GS1 Standards as part of the process to achieve perfect order through their trading contract. BD and ROi have developed a perfect order scorecard to measure transactional performance.

Read More