Healthy Purchasing Workgroup

The Healthy Purchasing work of the GHSI offers one of the most highly leveraged opportunities in the entire Initiative. The goal is to use the collective purchasing power of participating hospital systems and their Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) to transform the market for healthcare products and technologies that meet the goals of patient safety, workplace safety and environmental sustainability.

In much the same way that Wal-Mart has been able to signal its supply chain that they will reward suppliers providing environmentally superior products, the collaboration of GHSI hospitals will work together to create model specifications for a broad set of safer priority products and technologies and move the entire healthcare supply chain to deliver them at cost competitive prices.

The power of GHSI's Healthy Purchasing Strategy goes beyond any other Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) program conducted by either a government or other corporate sector because it puts health and safety at the center of a sector-wide purchasing initiative. This component of GHSI has very broad societal benefit since it will leverage manufacturers to offer safer chemicals, products and technologies not only to healthcare, but also to the other markets and the general public — who are increasingly demanding safer products to protect their health and the environment.

Project Components

• Powerpoint of GHSI on panel at 10/31/08 HIG-PA Conference in Orlando
  GGHSI Partners Robert Gotto, Senior Director of Sourcing for Kaiser Permanente, Mark Rossi, GHSI's Purchasing Workgroup Co-Leader and Lara Sutherland, Practice Greenhealth's Director of Environmental Purchasing presented at the recent Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) International Expo in Orlando for the session "Taking Green Purchasing Industry-Wide: Launching the Global Health & Safety Initiative." Gotto highlighted Kaiser's 24 implemented and successful Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) projects — 21 of the 24 did not result in increased cost! He also sent the primarily vendor audience a strong message: EPP is a differentiating criteria, and you need to know what is in your products. Rossi kicked off the session with an overview of GHSI and its Purchasing work, including the workgroup's top three priority commitment areas: PVC- and DEHP-free medical devices, halogen-free electronics, and post-consumer recycled content paper. Lara Sutherland gave an overview of GHSI partner Practice Greenhealth and its how its one-on-one consulting can support hospitals in implementation and support the sector-wide goals of GHSI. View their presentations or find out more about the conference.
• Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Guidance Document
  GHSI's Purchasing Workgroup developed overarching guidance for safer and more sustainable products and technologies. The EPP Guidance Document [162 kb pdf] is endorsed by health systems, GPOs and other supporters, signaling their intention to transform the healthcare market's purchasing policies and practices. Endorsers as of May 2009 include: Amerinet, Ascension Health, Broadlane, Catholic Healthcare West, Consorta, Inc., Health Care Without Harm, Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIG-PA), Hospital Sisters Health System, Kaiser Permanente, MedAssets, Novation, Practice Greenhealth, Premier Inc, and St. Joseph Health System.
• Model Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Disclosure Form
  One of the common problems facing hospital and GPO purchasing staff is the lack of transparency from vendors about toxic chemicals in their products and other environmental factors involved in their manufacture. GHSI will develop a shared set of environmentally preferable purchasing questions for vendors that will create a unified approach to the supply chain. As GHSI member health systems and their GPO's, i.e. the leading hospital buyers in the nation, ask the same set of questions, it is GHSI's belief that we will gain a better understanding of the chemical make up of products and this will in turn lead to the development of safer and more sustainable products.
• Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Specifications Resource
  Over the last decade, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) has developed model specifications for over 40 product categories and worked with hospitals and GPOs to implement them in their contracts. Through this work, HCWH has been able to transform the market for mercury-free medical devices, PVC-free medical devices, safer cleaners, building materials and other products, while providing critical direction to the market for electronics, recycled paper and many other products. Additionally, many hospital systems and GPOs have developed their own model specifications on various priority products used in hospitals. What has been missing is a "one-stop" shopping place to find model EPP specifications and adapt them for use across the sector. In order to address this need, the EPP Specifications Resource will be an easily searchable on-line database that provides information on:
  • recommended environmental specifications (by product category),
  • vendors that meet the specifications,
  • scientific information that supports the specifications and
  • positive EPP case studies, including financial savings information.
  The EPP Specifications Resource will provide the first-ever collective opportunity for GPOs and hospital systems to collaborate on defining and driving a coherent sector-wide procurement strategy and building a resource-rich tool to facilitate broad adoption.
• Develop List of Priority Products and Implement Market Strategy
  GHSI will develop a list of priority product areas where safer products need to be available to hospitals at affordable prices and then create the market momentum to meet this demand. Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Healthcare West and other GHSI partners have had a positive track record in developing model specifications and driving the market to meet their demand. Building on these successes, we will leverage the collective purchasing power of at least 18 large healthcare systems to transform the market for a targeted set of products, then harvest our learning and expand from that initial list. Some of the potential early product areas under consideration to kick-start this strategy include PVC-DEHP-free medical devices, reprocessed medical devices, safer electronics and safer flooring materials.

Outcomes and Benefits

• Faster market uptake and product availability due to collective purchasing power of GHSI partners to deliver safer priority products at cost effective prices, including product design transformation for targeted medical devices, electronics, building and furnishing products, and cleaning products
• Reduced per system cost due to cost sharing to develop EPP Resource Tool and implement strategy
• Simpler purchasing processes through a shared web-based resource with model specifications/contract language, case studies, financial data and information about vendors.

These benefits may, in turn, lead to:

• New or re-designed products with enhanced safety and sustainability attributes
• Reduced patient and workplace health and safety concerns due to superior products and lower environmental exposures
• Reduced regulation regarding hazardous substances or emissions
• Opportunities for positive press and corporate social responsibility branding