News
Northwest Supply Chain Early Success
Date: 2012-04-18
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) and St. Joseph's Care Group (SJCG) announced the creation and early success of the Northwest Supply Chain (NSC). The Northwest Supply Chain is a partnership between 13 hospitals in Northwestern Ontario that leverages buying power for large contracting of goods and services.
The program began in November, 2011 when the General Manager, Derek Gascoigne was hired. The broad goals of the project include "generating savings for partner organizations, sharing expert knowledge within the region for the purposes of contracting, negotiating, standardization and implementation of best practices, and leveraging technology to implement e-commerce systems", said Derek Gascoigne.
A steering committee is guiding the process with representation from the 13 hospitals. Grant Rowson, Administrative Director, Financial Services & Information Technology, Dryden Regional Health Centre said "the committee ensures all voices are involved in the progression of the project". Early success includes projected savings of a million dollars. These savings will be realized through contracts now in place for products and services such as joint employee benefits, IV products and Clinical/Diagnostic Equipment.
"Current provincial procurement rules require sophisticated Requests For Proposals, to ensure accountability and best value of taxpayer's money. There is a real opportunity to reduce the duplication of effort across 13 hospitals and share expertise to meet the requirements of the Broader Public Sector Procurement Directive. The NSC can issue one document where it used to take 13 separate ones. This efficiency in itself is significant for all concerned", said Rowson.
Scott Potts, Executive Vice President, Corporate and Diagnostic Services, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and Chair of the Steering Committee said, "This project helps the region by building expertise, collaboration among partners and generates savings at the same time."
