UCSF HEALTH
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CSF Health is at the forefront of healthcare innovation but , behind the scenes , the group ’ s Medical Center supply chain team are keeping the cogs turning so it can focus on delivering the state-of-the-art care it is known for .
UCSF Medical Center was recently named among the nation ’ s premier medical institutions for the 17th consecutive year , standing as the fifth best hospital in the country and the top-ranked hospital in California , according to U . S . News & World Report ’ s 2017-2018 Best Hospitals survey .
In the back-end , its supply chain team is responsible for a comprehensive set of services that continually strengthen the scope of its patient care . The organisation provides access to a broad range of medical-surgical products , and consistently seeks to reduce supply chain waste and expenses but , above all else , it is committed to delivering quality customer service , which enables premium care .
When he began as a buyer in procurement almost 16 years ago , Jake Limbert , now Director of Supply Chain Operations , did many menial and repetitive tasks – that ’ s when he realized how transformative technology could be .
“ I found myself doing the same set of rote and rudimentary tasks every day ,” he notes . “ I began to realize that with the help of our Materials Management Information Systems Team ( MMIS Team ) we could automate a lot of the procurement activity I was encountering .” Automation has become a prevalent trend in the supply chain field and it hasn ’ t gone amiss at UCSF Health . In 2009 , Limbert and his team partnered with Global Healthcare Exchange ( GHX ) to develop tools that allowed his team to onboard vendors who would then receive their purchase orders ( POs ) in a highly-automated and accurate fashion .
“ A requester at the hospital could scan an order or put through a request and that would queue up a requisition that would be turned into a purchase order automatically without any buyer
AUGUST 2018