In an effort to reduce supply chain costs with an unconventional health care practice, The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has moved all of its electronic transactions with suppliers to an electronic data interchange (EDI) solution from Toreion (Ontario, Canada).
“With Toreion, we are proving that electronic data exchange in health care should be viewed and priced as a commodity, as it is in other established industries, allowing us to focus even more of our resources on world-class patient care,” James Szilagy, chief supply chain officer at UPMC, said in a statement.
With Toreion’s solution, UPMC and its suppliers can exchange data through a variety of methods instead of just a healthcare hub. For suppliers that primarily serve non-health care customers, this approach can avoid the duplication and additional costs of processing transactions through the kind of health care-only EDI platform.
By providing automated email reminders that help track supplier acknowledgments of dispatched purchase orders, UPMC says the solution adds efficiency. Customized reports are sent daily to UPMC’s buyers, including information on back-orders, price changes and out-of-stock situations, this enables focus on critical activities without having to use multiple websites and passwords. Suppliers can also submit invoices electronically according to customer-specific standards.
