— Jake Limbert , Director of Supply Chain Operations

intervention ,” explains Limbert . “ We call it ‘ no touch POs .’ “ We were able to do that on a fairly large scale . We have about 600 POs that go out every day and so we were really able to take our PO activity and just turn it into an automated process . At that point , we could also hard code shipping and logistical standards with all of our vendors so they knew that UCSF had an exact and predictable timeframe to deal with .”

Building on this partnership , GHX then built Registration Center , otherwise known as ‘ RegCenter ’ which allowed UCSF Health to onboard its own vendors . As a result of its efforts , UCSF was later recognized by GHX in 2011 with their first every Industry Impact Award .

Since then , Limbert and his team have continued on an upward trajectory thanks to new and improved technological innovations . In 2015 , the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay opened , aiming to set new standards for healthcare in the 21st century .

The 289-bed complex features three separate hospitals , specialized in serving children , women and cancer patients . With such a mammoth operation , Limbert and his team wanted to focus on automation and streamlining operations where possible .

With the latest wave of innovation , it seems robotics are redrawing the healthcare landscape . Keen to tap into this emerging trend , UCSF Health teamed up with Aethon to use its autonomous mobile TUG robots . These new-generation robots allow UCSF Health to distribute items easily and reallocate their workforce so team members can focus on value-adding tasks rather than repetitive jobs .

“ This was revelatory as it al-

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