Supply-chain group pushes international standards
The Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Coalition is recommending the industry adopt standards established by the international standards organization GS1 to improve delivery of quality patient care.
The Chicago-based coalition endorses using a global location number and a global trade identification number, two GS1 standards used to identify and track products. According to a coalition news release, using GS1’s standards will ensure supply-chain participants in the healthcare industry will be able to identify every organization and every product the same way, cutting costs and confusion.
“This is a monumental step forward from our current state, where trading partners record organizational and product information differently and often manually, leading to tremendous inefficiency, waste and inaccuracy,” said Joseph Dudas, coalition co-chairman and director of accounting and supply chain informatics at the Mayo Clinic, in a written statement.
The coalition based its recommendation on results of a one-year survey of its members, which include supply-chain trade groups and healthcare providers. That survey showed most of its participants already were considering whether to adopt an organizational identifier on products, and were considering using GS1 standards.
