Medical University Hospital Authority (MUHA), located in Charleston, S.C., has selected healthcare supply chain technology provider GHX to help automate its purchasing and accounts payable processes, increase visibility into spend, and drive contract compliance. MUHA expects the supply chain transformation initiative, which GHX will help enable, will help it contain costs, standardize processes, and deliver care more efficiently to its patients.

Under a contract with GHX, MUHA will join the GHX exchange, the largest healthcare-centric electronic trading platform in the world. GHX will also provide a suite of procure-to-pay (P2P) technologies, called Procurement Suite, for item master management, real-time contract and price management, and requisitioning and workflow control, as well as the OnDemand AP e-invoicing package, to address inefficiencies identified in its supply chain and help MUHA achieve the cost savings goals it has set for itself.

In addition, GHX will deliver consulting services through the GHX Business Solutions group, which will include optimizing people and processes to more efficiently use the technology solutions MUHA has chosen.

"With declining reimbursements and other challenges facing the healthcare industry, it is imperative that we look at every means possible to capture all the revenue to which we are entitled, and to cut costs wherever possible without impacting patient care," said Lisa Montgomery, chief financial officer at MUHA.

"In the end, it's all about trying to improve the bottom line by making our supply chain lean and efficient," Regine Honore, MUHA's director of Supply Chain Management, said. "We've taken a proactive approach to cost containment that will help us improve how we're recognizing items that are revenue items, eliminate duplication of processes, and standardize what we're doing as we buy medical-surgical products. And that will help us take care of our patients more efficiently."