Virginia Hospital Center Seeks to Reduce Operating Costs and Improve Supply Chain with Broadlane

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Virginia Hospital Center was seeking innovative and effective cost-saving solutions, and we are confident that the custom solutions we developed will help deliver the savings and operational improvements they require.

Dallas (Vocus) June 17, 2009

Broadlane announced today that Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia has selected Broadlane as the exclusive provider of supply chain management and procurement services to help manage its approximate $52 million in annual spend. The relationship is effective October 1, 2009.

Virginia Hospital Center will access Broadlane's unparalleled national GPO portfolio of consumable supplies, equipment, pharmaceuticals and purchased services. Additionally, Virginia Hospital Center will utilize OnRamp® (Broadlane's client portal) to access contract and vendor information, run reports (such as pharmacy price verification), view Broadlane news and information and download training and continuing education.

"This is a time when cost-management is a must," said Robin Norman, senior vice president and chief financial officer, Virginia Hospital Center. "Supply chain is our second largest operating expense. We examined many companies looking for ways improve our supply chain and decrease operating costs. Broadlane emerged as the leader with the best solutions to meet our needs and deliver significant savings."

Virginia Hospital Center will utilize a full array of Broadlane's cost management services including:

•     Capital Equipment Services, including Live Group Buys and Quote Review where price, warranty and term information is verified for accuracy. Broadlane client hospitals historically save approximately 25 percent and up to three months of research and negotiation time through participation at Broadlane Live Group Buys.    
•     Clinical Consulting provided through The Preference Group™. The Preference Group will provide custom physician preference item (PPI) sourcing initiatives and consult on a variety of standardization and utilization initiatives.
•     BroadLink® (Broadlane's e-commerce exchange) will automate and manage transactions between Virginia Hospital facilities and suppliers electronically. The hospital can also manage purchase orders, purchase acknowledgements, advanced ship notifications, invoices and product and price updates through BroadLink.
•     Transaction Management Services will increase Virginia Hospital Center's efficiency and lower its procurement-related expenses through Broadlane's National Procurement Center, a centralized operation in Dallas. After buyers release purchase orders, transaction specialists will determine the most efficient means for processing purchase orders through BroadLink and ensure that contracted products are priced correctly. Leveraging BroadLink, Broadlane's transaction experts will process purchase orders and acknowledgements and manage workflows associated with correcting price discrepancies. For suppliers not supporting ecommerce, Broadlane will process orders via phone or fax, providing Virginia Hospital Center with "virtual EDI." Information on all orders - not just those processed via EDI - will return to Virginia Hospital Center electronically allowing consolidation of all transaction history.
•     Item Master Services will cleanse and synchronize Virginia Hospital's item master. This helps improve the quality of purchase order data which streamlines subsequent purchases and accounts payable activities focusing on reconciling vendor invoices with eligible contracts and enrollments to pay the correct price.
•     Informatics for access to reports and to improve insight related to contracts, capital equipment, pharmacy and other key areas of spend management. Broadlane's informatics suite includes Sustainable, Transformational, Actionable Reports (S.T.A.R.) metrics reporting technology that benchmarks supply chain performance against goals, peers and best practices.

"We are pleased to welcome Virginia Hospital Center as a Broadlane Client," said David Ricker, president and chief executive officer, Broadlane. "Virginia Hospital Center was seeking innovative and effective cost-saving solutions, and we are confident that the custom solutions we developed will help deliver the savings and operational improvements they require."

About Virginia Hospital Center

For over 60 years, Virginia Hospital Center has provided exceptional medical services to the Washington metropolitan area. Virginia Hospital Center's $150 million state-of-the-art facility offers comprehensive healthcare and multiple Centers of Excellence including Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery, the first NAPBC-accredited Center for Breast Health in Virginia, Neuroscience, Oncology, Total Joint Replacement (hip and knee), Women & Infant Health and Urology. Growing service lines include Executive Health and the only Lung Cancer Center in northern Virginia.

Virginia Hospital Center is a teaching hospital, long-associated with Georgetown University's School of Medicine, and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and Licensed by the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health. For additional information, please visit http://www.virginiahospitalcenter.com.

About Broadlane

Broadlane is the leading cost management company for healthcare providers. Its core services include supply chain management and clinical workforce management services.
Broadlane's comprehensive supply chain services include:

•     Unparalleled national and custom contracting for supplies, pharmaceuticals, equipment and purchased services
•     Innovative Procurement Services and purchase transaction management
•     Clinical Services for managing clinical preference items and operating room and cath lab spending
•     Comprehensive Materials Management Services - including outsourcing
•     Informatics - benchmarking, advanced analytics and reporting
•     Supply chain technology and e-commerce

Broadlane Workforce Management™ addresses nurses and allied healthcare practitioners and includes:

•     External shift and agency management services
•     Internal shift management, including electronic shift auctions
•     Regional nurse float pool management and internal agency management
•     E-commerce workforce exchange linking healthcare providers, clinical staff and agencies, enabling efficient shift management and fulfillment and reconciliation

Broadlane's clients include leading providers such as Advocate Health Care, Ascension Health, Beaumont Hospitals, CHRISTUS Health, Continuum Health Partners, Kaiser Permanente, Kindred Healthcare, MedCath Corporation, New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, Tenet Healthcare, The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, US Oncology and UMass Memorial Health Care.

The company is headquartered in Dallas with offices in Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, New York City and Oakland. For more information, visit http://www.broadlane.com.

Media Contact:
Christi Davidson
Broadlane
972.813.4122

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