University HealthSystem Consortium Adds Price Comparison to Spend Analytics Tool

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 06/11/09

The University HealthSystem Consortium has added a price competitive index (PCI) enhancement to SpendLINK, its proprietary supply chain spend analytics tool that helps academic medical centers optimize pricing. All members participating in the supply chain services and some of their associated hospitals submit their spend data to UHC, creating the database from which the PCI and price benchmarks are derived.

PCI, which is a unique scoring method for pricing competitiveness, will allow consortium hospitals to:

  • Assess their price competitiveness by manufacturer or United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) relative to other academic medical centers;
  • Work with clinicians to select the right products at the right price with data to support purchasing recommendations; and
  • Verify that price quotes are reasonable when purchasing new items, based on comparisons with purchases made by consortium members within the last year.

In a statement the consortium said that supply chain purchases represent 20 percent of a hospital's expenditure, making it the second largest expense after labor costs. In a complex academic medical center environment, supply costs may exceed $100 million annually.

The consortium, formed in 1984, is an alliance of 102 academic medical centers and 217 of their affiliated hospitals, representing about 90 percent of US nonprofit academic medical centers.

Supply chain participants include Emory University Hospital, the Oregon Health & Science University, and the University of Connecticut Health Center.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • human figures surrounded by precise arcs with book and gear icons

    Kennedy-King College Rolls Out Holistic Student Support Program

    Chicago's Kennedy-King College is expanding student support services through a collaboration between City Colleges of Chicago and One Million Degrees (OMD), a Chicago-based nonprofit serving low-income community college students.

  • illustration of a futuristic building labeled "AI & Innovation," featuring circuit board patterns and an AI brain motif, surrounded by geometric trees and a simplified sky

    Cal Poly Pomona Launches AI and Innovation Center

    In an effort to advance AI innovation, foster community engagement, and prepare students for careers in STEM fields and business, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona has teamed up with AI, cloud, and advisory services provider Avanade to launch a new Avanade AI & Innovation Center.

  • abstract composition with metallic gears, glowing AI symbols, futuristic bar graphs, interconnected networking nodes, a floating open book, and a graduation cap, set against a neutral gradient background

    AI in Higher Education: Overcoming Challenges and Building the 'Competent Institution'

    Artificial intelligence and the efficiency gains that come with it have the potential to change the current trajectory of many institutions at risk. But the key is to start now.