Healthcare Supply Chain Management

Operating a healthy supply chain

Global healthcare has increasingly come under pressure as external variables effect the industry. Hospitals and care facilities are under greater pressure from population growth or an aging population and retail is also having to take-up some of the slack. All of which means the global supply chain is under increasing pressure to keep-up with demand, changing circumstances and issues that affect logistics.

Regulation

The healthcare market is highly regulated, and in many cases, hospitals and heal care facilities maybe managed by the governments which means the procure to pay processes needs to be open and transparent and highly visible with very high levels of auditability and control. This applies to all products, from medicines and pharmaceuticals to containers and PPE. Similarly, there is a growth of private hospitals and heal care environments as governments try to off-set costs and persuade the population to use more private care so the supply chain is growing more complex with different buying approaches and needs.

Standards

The healthcare market is very fragmented with a number of new standards being adopted, such as GS1's standards as well as other regional and industry based standards. These add complexities to trade electronically and automate the supply chains that support the hospitals, health facilities and retailers. The complex nature of the supply chain and capex types of equipment also means longer delivery cycles, particularly as many goods are imported into a region.

Pharmaceutical controls

The trade of drugs and patient data also means higher levels of security and confidentiality needs to be applied to data and its movement. In the U.S. for example there is the HIPAA act through to GDPR in Europe with many other regulations applicable globally. These regulations means the movement of data and information needs to be differentiated from supply chain requirements.

Global supply chain

The pharmaceutical supply chain is very global. Research and development is conducted all over the world, as is the ongoing development of drugs, treatments and basic supplies for hospitals and other health-giving environments which means that the lead times and shipment of goods in a timely manner are highly important to get right at the outset.

Solutions for the healthcare industry

EDI

Dealing with complex purchases and sales in the healthcare supply network, while maintaining the necessarily high standards, is challenging. Using B2BE’s EDI network not only automates supply chains by shifting from paper to digital documents, but also optimises them by reducing costs and removing manual data entry.

B2BE’s EDI network can support any of the required healthcare document standards and specific healthcare requirements which can also be enhanced with a number of workflows to ensure the data is accurate and goods can be shipped correctly.

Web EDI

Some healthcare suppliers cannot support an integrated EDI solution, especially organisations in emerging markets or SME’s. However, B2BE’s Web Trader allows healthcare buyers to trade electronically. B2BE’s Web Trader solution enables organisations to be more adaptable with suppliers. The solution is highly modular, allowing you to run different process models for suppliers and supports any document set you require to manage supply. It also enables configurable process models for different functional requirements and can be configured to apply rules and validation elements, all in one simple-to-use web interface.

Web Portal

Improving visibility at all levels of the healthcare supply network is key to ensuring that buyers and their suppliers can keep track of a range of products and supplies at all stages. The use of the Web Portal enables organisations to easily track their suppliers and ensure that crucial timelines and standards for goods are being upheld. The Web Portal also provides access to many of the Document Management workflows to help in the movement of data around the global supply chain.

Document Distribution

B2BE offers an intelligent document distribution solution that will allow healthcare organisations, according to your needs, to route and send all business documents electronically. Using B2BE’s online portal and using multiple routing channels, healthcare companies can easily manage how their trading partners receive their documents, making progressive changes to eventually digitize all invoice documents.

Helping your healthcare supply chain thrive

100% electronic supply chain

Using B2BE’s solutions, healthcare organisations can receive 100% of your supplier’s documents electronically, with no human intervention and can similarly send 100% of your documents electronically, no matter how the end recipient wishes to receive the document. This also removes the need for hard copy document storage and retrieval as all documents are available online and can be downloaded in seconds while improving document visibility across the healthcare supply chain.

Multi-channel management

Your organisation can setup multiple different entities within B2BE’s Web Portal if required, managed by the portal’s security permissions, so it can run across different parts of your organisation in different geographic regions. For example, multiple hospitals or heal care providers within the same group can have a Web Portal which is segregated based on user profiling. This allows different supply chain partners to interact with the relevant individual parts of your supply network while maintaining confidentiality and security needs.

Reduce supply chain costs

Not only does eliminating paper documents mean that your organisation will save money, but B2BE’s solutions help organisations keep prices competitive. For healthcare supply chains, this will mean that organisations can ensure that, regardless of any complicated supply agreements, it will be easier to get the best return on investment.

Accreditation and standards

B2BE is aware that the heal care market is very sensitive about their information, how it is parsed, how it's stored and archived. B2BE is ISO 27001 accredited which means we have systems, processes and policies to manage exactly the requirements associated with the heal care industry.