WESTMINSTER, Colo. – February 24, 2003— Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) announced today that Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW), a global leader in products and technologies to treat advanced cardiovascular disease, has joined GHX. Through its participation in GHX, Edwards Lifesciences will be able to transact business electronically with member hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the United States and Canada. “Edwards Lifesciences prides itself in being a trusted partner with its customers, colleagues and patients in the fight against cardiovascular disease,” says J. Randall Nelson, corporate vice president and president, North American Region. “By partnering with GHX, we can work collaboratively with our customers to manage supply chain costs, which ultimately helps patients get the quality products and care they need.” In addition to enabling healthcare suppliers and provider organizations to conduct e-commerce with multiple trading partners at a lower cost through a single Internet connection, GHX offers products and services to minimize mistakes and the need for manual intervention in the purchasing process. The GHX AllSource™ catalog contains the most accurate product information, maintained and verified by the manufacturers. GHX Content Intelligence™ uses pre-established rules and the AllSource catalog to identify and correct inaccurate product information in purchase orders, and helps buyers avoid repetitive mistakes. GHX Report Source notifies hospitals when the price they expect to pay is different than the price a supplier plans to charge, and allows buyers and sellers to resolve price discrepancies earlier in the purchase process.
More than 800 US hospitals and healthcare facilities and 80 supplier divisions are already transacting business through GHX. With the recently completed merger between GHX and Medibuy, Inc., that number will increase to over 1,300 providers and 100 suppliers when GHX and Medibuy combine their two exchanges later this year. There are more than 60 Canadian hospitals participating in GHX.
GHX Chief Executive Officer Mike Mahoney welcomes Edwards Lifesciences to its growing list of participating suppliers. “By making its products available to customers in a more efficient manner, Edwards can devote more focus to developing life-saving and enhancing medical technologies, while its customers can focus more of their resources on their core competency: delivering quality patient care. GHX is proud to provide the technology and services that can facilitate this process.”
About Global Healthcare Exchange
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) provides an open and neutral electronic trading exchange, along with complementary products and services, through which buyers and sellers can collaborate to improve efficiencies in the healthcare supply chain. GHX’s catalog and content services improve the accuracy of purchasing transactions, reducing many of the most common and costly problems in healthcare procurement, while the privately held company’s revenue neutral business model is designed to lower costs for all involved. GHX’s owners, strategic partners and trading exchange participants are representative of the entire healthcare supply chain, including suppliers and distributors; integrated delivery networks (IDNs), hospitals and ancillary healthcare facilities; group purchasing organizations and their proprietary healthcare trading exchanges; and supply chain technology companies. Equity owners of GHX include Johnson & Johnson Health Care; GE Medical Systems; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Abbott Exchange, Inc.; Siemens; Becton, Dickinson & Co.; Boston Scientific Corp. Tyco Healthcare Group, LP; Guidant Corp.; C.R. Bard, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Fisher Scientific International, Inc.; McKesson Corp.; B Braun Medical Inc.; Premier, Inc. and HCA. For more information visit www.ghx.com.
About Edwards Lifesciences Corporation
Edwards Lifesciences, a leader in advanced cardiovascular disease treatments, is the number-one heart valve company in the world, and the global leader in acute hemodynamic monitoring. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Edwards focuses on four main cardiovascular disease states: heart valve disease, coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease and congestive heart failure. The company's global brands, which are sold in over 80 countries, include Carpentier-Edwards, Cosgrove-Edwards, Swan-Ganz, Lifepath AAA and Fogarty. Additional company information can be found at www.edwards.com.