Toronto, ON, June 29, 2011 -To improve the efficiency of clinical operations and procurement processes across the Canadian healthcare system, GS1 Canada has released Healthcare Product Description Standardization Guidelines for product short descriptions for medical/surgical products. Developed by the GS1 Canada Healthcare Product Description Standardization Work Group, these guidelines provide a formula for healthcare suppliers, providers and Shared Service Organizations (SSOs) to standardize the short descriptions of medical and surgical products in their databases, facilitating the exchange of accurate and standardized product data between healthcare trading partners.
Currently, many providers use unique codes internal to their own organizations for describing products. With healthcare suppliers and providers using a consistent formula to describe healthcare products, all users will be able to quickly and easily identify a product. As a result, ambiguity in item catalogues and item master files will be minimized, reducing problems such as duplicate product ordering, which can add time and costs for all trading partners.
The guidelines are already being put into use across Canada, by Shared Services Organizations (SSOs) such as Health Shared Services BC, as well as individual healthcare institutions and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) such as HealthPRO.
The long-term objective is for standardized short product descriptions to be created by the supplier, with no modifications required by healthcare providers as the product moves through the healthcare supply chain – from the point of manufacture to the point of patient care. This will ensure that the entire healthcare community is using the same short forms in both their clinical and non-clinical systems, such as the item master list.
Benefits of using standardized product descriptions include:
- Improved order processing
- Reduced time required for product replenishment
- Reduced costs throughout the supply chain
- Reduced time and resources required to return product
- Easier search capability for product information when recalls occur
- Reduced instances of:
- Incorrect ordering
- Incorrect shipment of goods
- Out-of-stocks
- Time spent on data cleansing and inventory management