GS1 Standards Advocates actively drive adoption and implementation of GS1 Standards with the common goal of improving patient safety and supply chain efficiency. GS1 Standards Advocates promote the use of GS1 Standards in U.S. healthcare to their communities to support this important initiative through press releases, website communications, etc.

				The Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management is the leading national association for executives in the healthcare resource and materials management profession. A personal membership group of the American Hospital Association, AHRMM serves more than 3,900 active members. Founded in 1962, AHRMM prepares its members to contribute to the field and advance the profession through leadership, education, resources and networking. www.ahrmm.org
				As a leading national group purchasing organization, Amerinet strategically partners with healthcare providers to reduce costs and improve quality. Through Amerinet’s total spend management solutions and operational performance improvement tools and services, they assist providers in reducing costs, improving efficiencies and creating new revenue streams. Supported by a team of clinical, data and supply chain experts, Amerinet offers a comprehensive and competitive portfolio of product and service contracts designed to address members’ specific needs. www.amerinet-gpo.com
				The Coalition for Healthcare eStandards, Inc., (CHeS) is a collaborative of organizations dedicated to promoting the adoption and use of open data standards in the health care industry. Through the work of task forces, CHeS makes recommendations to accelerate industry-wide adoption of comprehensive data standards and encourages other industry representatives to participate in ecommerce standards work groups. As of July 1st, 2008, CHeS has combined their efforts with HIGPA and will serve, as a subcommittee, under the auspices of HIGPA. www.CHeStandards.org
				The Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) is a broad-based trade association that represents 19 purchasing organizations. HIGPA's group purchasing members include for-profit and not-for-profit corporations, purchasing groups, associations, multi-hospital systems and healthcare provider alliances. HIGPA's mission is to advocate on behalf of health care group purchasing associations, to provide educational opportunities designed to improve efficiencies in the purchase, sale and utilization of all goods and services within the health industry and to promote meaningful dialogue between GPOs. www.higpa.org
				The Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Coalition (HSCSC) is a multi-stakeholder collaborative of senior leaders dedicated to moving healthcare toward the use of uniform standards for business transactions to achieve greater supply chain efficiency and improved patient safety. The Coalition recommends, promotes, and facilitates the implementation of uniform supply chain data standards in the industry. As of June 1st, 2008 HSCSC combined its efforts with GS1 Healthcare US. The HSCSC work groups have merged into the GS1 Healthcare US workgroups and HSCSC members are now members of GS1 Healthcare US.
				MedAssets partners with healthcare providers to improve their financial strength by implementing integrated spend management and revenue cycle solutions that help control cost, improve margins and cash flow, increase regulatory compliance, and optimize operational efficiency. MedAssets serves more than 125 health systems, 3,300 hospitals and 30,000 non-acute care healthcare providers. For more information, visit www.medassets.com
				Novation is the industry’s leading contracting services company that delivers unmatched savings to more than 2,500 members and affiliates of VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) and over 13,000 Provista customers. By combining scale and agility with clinical knowledge and product expertise, Novation offers the most extensive range of advanced contracting services in the industry. VHA, UHC and Provista members used Novation and alliance contracts to purchase more than $35 billion in supplies and services in 2008. www.novationco.com
				Resource Optimization & Innovation (ROi) is an 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 $560 million in contracted volume, more than 1,400 members and serves more than 4,000 licensed beds in 22 acute care hospitals. www.mercy.net/facilities/roi
				Serving more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals and 53,000-plus other healthcare sites, the Premier healthcare alliance and its members are transforming healthcare together. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the leading healthcare purchasing networks and the nation's most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information. A subsidiary operates one of the nation's largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups. A world leader in helping healthcare providers deliver dramatic improvements in care, Premier is working with the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to improve hospital performance. www.premierinc.com
				The Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI) is a consortium of healthcare supply chain executives united to reengineer and advance the future of the healthcare supply chain for the purpose of improving the overall healthcare marketplace in the United States. SMI provides critical mass representing key industry stakeholders and decision makers within the healthcare supply chain interacting and sharing best practices. Members include transactional trading partners from integrated delivery networks (IDNs) and academic medical centers; manufacturers of medical surgical, diagnostic and pharmaceutical supplies; capital equipment and medical device companies; distributors; service providers; IT companies; and other key suppliers with direct involvement in the healthcare supply chain ultimately impacting patient care delivery. Through SMI, members have discovered an open, non-competitive forum for innovative idea-exchange and the development of collaborative process improvement initiatives. Multidisciplinary teams develop tools and techniques that members can take back to their organizations and customize to meet their own unique needs. As SMI is dedicated to improving the entirety of the healthcare supply chain, all such solutions are shared free of charge with the healthcare marketplace. www.smisupplychain.com
				The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), formed in 1984, is an alliance of more than 100 academic medical centers and more than 200 of their affiliated hospitals, representing approximately 90% of the nation’s nonprofit academic medical centers. UHC’s products and services help members measure and improve clinical, operational, and financial performance. Powerful databases provide comparative data in clinical, operational, faculty practice management, financial, patient safety, and supply chain areas. www.uhc.edu
				VHA Inc. is a national health care alliance that serves more than 1,400 not-for-profit hospitals and more than 23,000 non-acute care providers across the nation. VHA supports clinical and operational improvement and creates and sustains focused member networks that help members become better performers. www.vha.com