The healthcare industry has been primed for healthcare reform and according to GHX, 2014 will bring even more change to the business of healthcare. The company is predicting that 2014 will be a year of great healthcare evolution, not necessarily revolution, with organizations focused on lowering costs while improving patient care. GHX has identified what it considers the biggest trends for the coming year: industry consolidation and partnerships, collaborative approaches to industry issues, cooperation between healthcare trading partners and institutions and having technology closer to the point of care to gain real-time analytics for better decisions for patient outcomes.
“For years, we’ve heard about how ‘far behind’healthcare is technologically compared to other industries. To meet the demands of healthcare reform we have to close that gap,”said Bruce Johnson, CEO, GHX. “Over the past few years, we’ve all become smarter practitioners and consumers of healthcare, and I believe we’re on the cusp of something great. The way to mature as a healthy industry is through more deliberate collaboration. We operate in such an integrated business ecosystem that we have to apply the disciplines of working together to deliver on the promise of an effective healthcare system.”
According to Marco de Vries, executive director, Strategic Marketing, GHX: “We see consolidation as a predictable outcome of accountable care, reimbursement declines and the general financial stress in the system. But what appears to also be driving some of the M&A activities and new partnerships is the requirement for a broader continuum of care. In the future, healthcare organizations may see better control over the quality of care as they can become more accountable for ‘360 degrees of patient care’– not just sickness and recovery, but overall wellness too.”
According to Karen Conway, executive director, Industry Relations. GHX: “There is an emerging market trend toward business models that allow customers to share versus own. Think about Avis’Zip Cars ’car sharing’program that offers an alternative to owning or renting. In healthcare, cost constraints create the motivation for organizations to find opportunities to share technology, rather than build or buy their own point-to-point solutions. Some of the best applications in healthcare have been built around the need to improve collaboration and visibility to things such as: data used by parties involved in purchasing contracts, better tracking and management of devices within the implantable device supply chain, and pharmaceutical track and trace.”
According to Derek Smith, chief commercial officer, GHX: “The pressure on costs, quality and outcomes will force even once adversarial relationships into cooperative ones. Moving toward the trend of more visibility, collaboration, standardization and synchronization between institutions will ensure the healthcare industry becomes more efficient while operating in a way that delivers a strong value to outcomes ratio.”
According to Steve Cochran, chief technology officer, GHX: “From a technology perspective, we’re embarking on a time of ‘sensing and understanding’in healthcare. Hospitals and other organizations will be looking to capture data closer to the patient, closer to ‘the action,’and analyze that data to make smarter, faster, better decisions that result in quality patient care and positive outcomes. Other industries have embraced the notion of big data analytics successfully, and we believe that 2014 is the time when healthcare will as well.”
According to Rachel Hall, vice president, Product Management, GHX: “Healthcare organizations – and especially their CFOs – will look for the supply chain to help healthcare become a more efficient system. Supply chain importance will grow as organizations recognize it’s not just a process to get more volume at a lower cost, but really an asset to work collaboratively with trading partners – to reduce inefficiencies, improve accuracy, increase visibility and transparency, and provide analytical intelligence to help organizations make smarter, better, faster decisions.”
About GHX
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) is driving costs out of healthcare by transforming the healthcare supply chain. Working with providers and suppliers, GHX is accelerating change by providing a faster, more efficient and collaborative supply chain that will take billions of dollars out of the cost of healthcare. For more information, visit www.ghx.com and The Healthcare Hub.