Medical Device Daily Senior

The healthcare industry — including providers, group purchasing organizations, device manufacturers, and distributors — is moving toward adoption of a global data standards system in the next five years, according to a new survey. The Health Industry Group Purchasing Association's (HIGPA; Washington) Committee on eHealth Standards (CHeS) commissioned the survey, which was conducted by the University of Arkansas Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics (Fayetteville).

The survey was keyed off of previous work and supported by the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM; Chicago). It found that 68% of respondents were moving toward adoption of a global data standards system in the next five years, as opposed to only 35% who responded affirmatively to the same question in a 2008 survey.

Pat Klancer, senior director of the Diagnostix Supply Chain at Amerinet (St. Louis) and chair of HIGPA's CHeS committee, told Medical Device Daily the purpose of the study was to find out how much uptake there is and how knowledgeable the healthcare community is regarding critical data standards. The survey also aimed to find out what standards the industry is using and what obstacles are associated with it.

Compared to the 2008 survey there was a “marked increase“ in the number of organizations that are moving toward adoption of a global data standards system. While the recent passing of the healthcare reform law might be one factor in the push, Klancer says she thinks it would have happened with or without the new healthcare laws as there has been a “very strong awareness among healthcare providers that we don't have many standards“ with regards to purchasing and that a lot of costs could be minimized with the adoption of such standards.

“Globally recognized data standards that are created for entity locations are critical to ensuring patient safety and supply chain efficiencies, and to reducing healthcare costs. On the eve of the GS1 Global Location Number (GLN) sunrise date, this survey clearly demonstrates that parties to the healthcare supply chain have made significant progress toward adoption readiness, but also shows that there is still work to be done,“ said HIGPA President Curtis Rooney. “Because global standards are imperative for the efficient recall of defective devices and other supplies that can jeopardize patient health, GPOs aggressively worked toward adoption for healthcare provider locations months ahead of the healthcare industry's already ambitious schedule.“

In October, group purchasing organizations announced industry readiness to adopt standards for healthcare provider locations months ahead of schedule. This new survey illustrates that other participants in the healthcare supply chain are now also moving closer to adoption, HIGPA noted.

According to the survey results, of those respondents moving toward adoption of a data standards system, 90% are moving toward GSI standards. Of respondents moving toward adoption of GSI, 76% plan to implement GLNs. Also, by the end of 2010, 51% of organizations adopting a GSI plan will implement GLNs, the survey found.

For healthcare providers, Klancer said, “resources are very limited, but with every product that you purchase you have to go out and do your own research with regards to that product . . . for some items there is a lot of information and for some items the information might be very spotty.“

Klancer said the survey results were “very similar“ to what she expected to see.

“Growth has been remarkable, there has been a lot of increase in the awareness and many organizations are making preparations to do the standards,“ Klancer said. However, there are still some obstacles, she said. The main obstacle is a lack of resources on all sides, she added.

“Providers and even manufacturers, everybody has, in some sense, limited resources so putting a priority on standards is going to be at the expense of something else,“ Klancer said.

The benefits of the healthcare industry adopting a global data standards system is greater efficiency, according to Klancer.

“There has been research on the healthcare supply chain to show that with the lack of standards there are some efficiencies to be gained . . . in the neighborhood of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, so those kinds of efficiencies are certainly needed both in terms of just being able to get the right product to the right patient in a timely manner,“ Klancer said. “The impact of healthcare reform is resources will be stretched more tightly than ever and with those financial challenges anything that can bring you greater efficiency is going to be critically important.“

“The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) recognized the importance of adopting standards in electronic health records (EHR) that result in increased patient safety and efficiencies in the healthcare system,“ said David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health information technology, in a letter to HIGPA and AHRMM. “ONC understands that collaboration with the public and private sectors in adopting additional or new standards is essential to our process.“

Amanda Pedersen, 309-351-7774;
amanda.pedersen@ahcmedia.com