FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Niki Burgdorf, 314/628-3603
Resource Optimization & Innovation (ROi) Celebrates Five Years of Supply Chain Success
St. Louis, Mo. (January 11, 2008) — Resource Optimization & Innovation (ROi), the supply chain operating division of the Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy), will celebrate its fifth anniversary on February 26.
Since its incorporation in 2002, ROi has grown from a solely internal network with a supply contracting volume of $160 million, into an organization with internal and external clients and a contracting volume of over $360 million, while at the same time reducing the number of total contracts by 34%.
In 2006, ROi was the first healthcare organization to be named Supply Chain Innovator of the Year by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, winning over well-known companies such as IBM, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and Dow Chemical. ROi also ranks as one of the most visited health system supply chains in the nation, hosting visitors from entities such as Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, Arizona State University, the Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics, and hospital leaders representing more than 24% of the hospital beds in America. In addition, ROi’s Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) is the eighth largest in the nation by purchasing volume, according to an annual GPO survey conducted by Modern Healthcare magazine.
The ROi business model, which includes a centralized storage and distribution center in Springfield, Missouri, known as the Consolidated Services Center (CSC), has enabled Mercy to undertake several revolutionary projects in the last five years. Among these are:
- Mercy Meds - This medication administration program combines unit-dose, bar-coded medication repackaging – done at the CSC – with computer-controlled drug distribution cabinets serving hospital nursing units and bar-code scanning performed at the patient bedside. Mercy Meds serves more than 3,000 patient beds and has prevented hundreds of potential medication errors, keeping Mercy’s patients safer.
- Private label products - ROi recently helped Mercy become the first healthcare provider in nation to launch its own clinician-recommended private label product line, “Mercy – The Mark of Quality.” Still in its first year, the branding program nets savings of 5% to 30% on private label products used by Mercy hospitals and physician offices.
- Lawson implementation – ROi was lauded by Lawson Software for its role in Mercy’s successful system-wide implementation of the Lawson Supply Chain Management suite. The simultaneous implementation representing 3,600 users at 19 hospitals and other facilities was the largest single-day supply chain implementation of the Lawson software.
In addition to continually improving services to Mercy, ROi has plans to reach out to other healthcare integrated delivery networks to promote best practices across the industry, as well as to pursue partnerships with non-healthcare supply chain leaders to understand successful processes and technology from other industries that may be used to improve healthcare.
“ROi has always had one primary objective: to successfully pioneer a modern supply chain business model for healthcare that is integrally linked to the provision of care,” said Vance Moore, president of ROi. “Our first five years were about building a solid foundation for our operations. Now we look forward to reaching out to others in order to improve the healthcare and supply chain industries.”
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About ROi
Resource Optimization & Innovation (ROi) is operating division of the Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy) that allows Mercy to successfully offer a single-source, fully integrated supply chain solution to serve its customers. ROi focuses on three primary areas of service: performance consulting, group purchasing and supply chain management. As of fiscal year 2007, ROi has $360 million in contracted volume, more than 1,400 members and serves more than 4,000 licensed beds in 22 acute care hospitals. ROi is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. and has distribution operations at the Consolidated Services Center (CSC) in Springfield, Mo.
About Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy) operates hospitals, physician practices, outpatient clinics, health plans and related health and human services in a seven state area including Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Its members include 18 acute care hospitals providing more than 4,000 licensed beds, two heart hospitals, a managed care subsidiary (Mercy Health Plans), physician practices, outpatient care facilities, home health programs, skilled nursing services and long-term care facilities. Services are provided by approximately 30,000 co-workers and 4,000 physicians who are employed or practice at Mercy facilities. Mercy is the 9th largest Catholic healthcare system in the U.S. based on net patient service revenue and is sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy–St. Louis Regional Community.
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