COHPA project to save three hospitals $1.8 million annually
Purchasing project to save hospitals money running on schedule
Friday January 16, 2009 -- Deron Hamel
Three hospitals within the Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) will save an estimated $1.8 million annually through their participation in the Central Ontario Healthcare Procurement Alliance (COHPA), says Brad Sinclair, the project’s general manager.
Southlake Regional Health Centre, Markham Stouffville Hospital and York Central Hospital, along with three other health-service providers, have joined forces through the COHPA project, which is aimed at streamlining medical supply purchases to give hospitals the most cost-effective service.
By bringing together the six hospitals, COHPA — a not-for-profit, non-share-capital, free-standing corporation — is aiming to maximize purchasing power for each of the participating health-service providers through a central location in Richmond Hill.
Because medical supplies will be ordered in large quantities, the price per unit will be lower than if purchased by individual hospitals.
In short, the contract specialists who previously placed purchase orders have gone from working within a hospital setting to working out of the central location, which opened in December.
The $1.8 million savings the three Central LHIN hospitals are expected to see will be an “ongoing net benefit after the start-up and transition period,” says Sinclair.
The project, which was incorporated in April 2008 and is due to have all six hospitals on board by summer, is running on schedule, says Sinclair.
Starting in February, COHPA and representatives from the six hospitals will be testing a system it has developed to catalogue everything pertinent to buying medical supplies for the hospitals so they can begin making purchases in April, he adds.
The state-of-the-art tools COHPA’s buyers will use are technology-enabled, web-enabled and paperless, notes Sinclair, adding he expects this to be a seamless transition for the participating health-service providers.
“To a user, (this) should be a fairly transparent change,” says Sinclair. “But we’re going to do a lot of work training the users on how to use our system in the spring, so that there’s no delay in placing the purchase order.”