GS1 Australia and the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) have welcomed the recent announcement from NSW Health, advising HealthShare’s reaffirmed commitment to the National Product Catalogue (NPC) and GS1 Locatenet.
HealthShare has aligned its procurement business processes for the utilisation of data from the NPC and location information from GS1 Locatenet. The procurement areas in focus at HealthShare are cataloguing, tendering, contracting and electronic trading.
This further emphasises the importance of all suppliers taking the necessary steps to have their full catalogue (contracted and non-contracted items) on the NPC and their Global Location Numbers (GLN’s) added to GS1 Locatenet.
GS1 Australia’s CEO Maria Palazzolo said the NPC and GS1 Locatenet provide the foundations for Australian healthcare to achieve continued supply chain reform, and ultimately improve patient safety.
“Both of these tools were developed specifically for Australia’s healthcare sector, to facilitate direct electronic communication between organisations wanting to accurately and efficiently source and supply pharmaceuticals, as well as medical consumables, equipment and devices,” Ms Palazzolo said.
In collaboration with HealthShare, GS1 Australia and NEHTA are also urging suppliers to continue their commitment by providing clean NPC data for all products, including non-contracted items, and correct location details via GS1 Locatenet, as Australian healthcare buyers are relying heavily on the data provided.
Mark Brommeyer, Supply Chain Manager at NEHTA said, “The identification of healthcare products and their physical location is critical in any safe and efficient healthcare system. Adoption of the GS1 standards means the Australian healthcare sector has aligned with global standards for identification and marking of healthcare products, and associated product master data exchange, via the use of Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), the NPC and Global Location Numbers (GLNs).”
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About the NPC
The NPC is a data repository of standardised, validated and synchronised item master information such as product identifiers and descriptions, units of measure, package contents, product classification, pricing and related healthcare information. It is hosted by the not-for-profit industry association GS1 Australia on GS1net. For more information, visithttp://www.gs1au.org/services/gs1net/ and http://www.gs1au.org/services/gs1net/industry/npc/
About GS1 Locatenet
GS1 Locatenet is a central repository enabling the exchange of location information – including Global Location Numbers (GLNs) between trading partners in the healthcare sector. The unique GLNs supported worldwide enables standardised identifying of trading entities, ship-to and ship-from locations, pricing locations; and eMessaging addresses. GS1 Locatenet is the result of an ongoing partnership between NEHTA and GS1 Australia and is now a requirement to become NPC ready. For more information, visit http://www.gs1au.org/services/locatenet/
About GS1 Australia
GS1 Australia is the Australian member of the global GS1 organisation. It enables 17,000 members – businesses of all sizes from 22 sectors across Australia – to enhance their efficiency and cost effectiveness by adopting GS1 global supply chain standards best practices, bar code and numbering standards, services and solutions. For more information, visit www.gs1au.org
About NEHTA
The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) has been tasked by the governments of Australia to develop better ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging health information and is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for eHealth in Australia. The ability to store and share accurate, complete and up-to-date data on healthcare products between suppliers and healthcare delivery organisations is a critical, foundational component for Australia’s transition to an electronic health system. The National Product Catalogue (NPC) is one of the first in the world to focus exclusively on the needs of the healthcare industry, whilst allowing provision of data about products from other sectors to healthcare purchasers. The NPC is endorsed by all state, territory and federal health departments. For more information, please see: www.nehta.gov.au/our-work/supply-chain
