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Recently, Materials Management in Healthcare conducted a survey of hospitals (more than 700 materials managers) regarding their GPO relationships and value. The survey results were extremely positive; 90% of survey respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their GPO. In individual service areas, GPOs received the highest satisfaction scores for pricing, savings and customer service. The article—containing survey results and highlights— will run in the August issue of Hospitals and Health Networks.
Notably, Ray Moore with PeaceHealth in Bellevue, Washington estimates in the piece that most IDNs would require a 6-to-1 personnel increase if they shifted from GPOs to self-contracting.
On top of these savings through personnel and the savings on product cost, some GPO value-add services, such as benchmarking, are also viewed very favorably. At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, benchmarking tools provided by their GPO have led to identifiable savings. “We see what our peer hospitals are paying, then we go back to our suppliers and show them the benchmark,” says Gerry DeSilva of Cedars-Sinai. “That helps in negotiations, and that cost avoidance is real savings.”
The survey proves the very foundation of group purchasing: GPOs save money.