4 Things You Didn’t Know About Group Purchasing Organizations

As a healthcare provider, you’re required to follow stringent cleaning protocols to maintain a safe and healthy environment and mitigate the chances of disease or healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) from spreading.

Creating distinct processes to ensure you’re maintaining the clinical integrity of the environment and adhering to the Joint Commission standards is a must. But the complexity of the environment challenges you to maintain those consistent and thorough protocols day in and day out. One item that can fall down the priority list is pest control. However, if ignored, pest issues can put your patients’ health at risk since many pests, such as cockroaches and rodents, can carry and transmit dangerous diseases. That’s why it’s important to partner with a knowledgeable and reliable pest management provider so you know which pests to look for, where to find them and how to ultimately prevent them from becoming an issue.

Did you know that you can find that kind of pest management provider through your group purchasing organization (GPO)? You may know that you can get products and supplies through your GPO, but you may not realize it can help you save time and money on service providers, too.

We collaborated with Premier Inc., a leading healthcare improvement company and one of Orkin’s GPO partners, to give you an overview of GPOs and the benefits they offer to help protect your bottom line and your facility.

What is a GPO?

According to Premier, here are the top 4 things you should know about GPOs:

1. They do not purchase or buy any products; rather, they leverage members’ purchasing power to negotiate contracts that offer discounts, incentives and other favorable terms with manufacturers, distributors and other vendors.
2. GPO members include healthcare providers, such as health systems, hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, physician practices and nursing homes, as well as other types of providers, including K-12 schools, universities and hotels.
3. They enable hospitals to save up to $33 billion each year through lower product prices.
4. They can lower costs by helping members obtain the right products and services at the very best price through simplified contracting, product standardization and by bringing members together to build the capabilities they need.

Choosing a GPO

Just like no two healthcare centers are the same, neither are GPOs. When choosing the right GPO for you, it’s important to keep in mind the specific needs of your facility. Here are the top considerations Premier, Inc.  recommends factoring into your GPO decision:

• Select a national GPO that offers a broad and deep contract portfolio with product and service choices through sole-, dual- and multi-source contracts and flexibility in terms, including support for custom contracting.
• Give consideration to the infrastructure investments the GPO has made to help manage the complex system of purchasing, including the ability to process payments, support reporting requirements and offer e-commerce solutions.
• Seek out the ability to access all the information you need in an easy and organized fashion when managing your GPO benefits. GPOs like Premier, Inc. offer a total supply chain management platform that allows members to better manage operations, increase process efficiency and reduce total non-labor experiences. Their suite of solutions includes analytics and automatic workflow, financial management tools and technology to simplify information sharing, provide pricing intelligence and empower data-driven purchasing decisions.

So, whether you’re managing a hospital, physician’s office or nursing home, a healthy and clean environment for your patients and employees should be a top priority. Streamlining your purchases with the appropriate products and services at a low cost through a GPO will help offer the optimal patient experience and protect your bottom line.

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