Community Health Ventures and Medline Launch New Group Purchasing Partnership
• Global medical supplier to provide products and value-added programs through new agreement
• 850-plus members to experience 10 percent cost savings on essential medical supplies
Mundelein, Ill., Aug. 11, 2016 – Community health centers play a key clinical role in helping patients in underserved areas. In fact, nearly 1 in 14 people receive care at these facilities. In an effort to strengthen supply chain operations to help drive positive patient outcomes, Community Health Ventures, the business development affiliate of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) that negotiates group purchasing agreements to help centers reduce costs and remain competitive, recently awarded a group purchasing agreement to Medline under its Value in Purchasing (ViP) Program.
The ViP program is the only national group purchasing program endorsed by NACHC. Through this new partnership, Medline is providing guaranteed cost savings on its robust portfolio of patient-care products, such as gloves, minor procedure trays and point-of-care tests to ViP members at a savings of approximately 10 percent. Medline will also offer value-added programs on pertinent topics such as infection control and safety, and provide members access to free online education through Medline University to help staff members perform at their very best.
“With Medline’s 50-plus years of supply chain experience across the care continuum, we bring effective insights and strategies in supply chain so community health centers can focus on caring for patients. We’re committed to driving results for our customers and providing ViP members with customized solutions that will help them achieve maximum efficiency,” said Greg Smith, vice president of community and rural health sales at Medline.
To help ViP members receive their products when and where they need them, more than 40 Medline distribution centers are located in every major metropolitan area across the country. In addition, the company has its own fleet of more than 450 trucks and a dedicated field sales team that can consult with ViP members on products and clinical solutions.
“Our focus on a day-to-day basis is to develop and strengthen partnerships with the vendor community that demonstrates they can provide a benefit to health centers in some way,” said Danny Hawkins, CHV’s Senior Vice President. “Whether that benefit comes in the form of lower prices on the products used by health centers or by expanding our contract formularies to include new product lines, CHV is constantly working to identify those opportunities. CHV, and most importantly health centers, have found just such an opportunity with our partnership with Medline.”
The contract is in effect through Feb. 8, 2019.
About Medline
Medline is a global manufacturer and distributor serving the healthcare industry with medical supplies and clinical solutions that help customers achieve both clinical and financial success. Headquartered in Mundelein, Ill., the company offers 350,000+ medical devices and support services through more than 1,200 direct sales representatives who are dedicated points of contact for customers across the continuum of care. For more information on Medline, go to www.medline.com or http://www.medline.com/social-media to connect with Medline on its social media channels.
Community Health Ventures
Community Health Ventures (CHV) is the business development affiliate of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). Founded in 2000, CHV was created under the direction of health center leadership and tasked with creating workable solutions to the tremendous economic pressures facing today’s health centers. By negotiating group-purchasing agreements, staffing solutions, lab agreements and more, CHV helps health centers reduce costs and remain competitive.
CHV’s dedicated staff and management have over 50 years of combined Community Health Center experience and ensure that their programs meet the specialized needs of health centers.
For more information, please visit www.communityhealthventures.com
National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
Founded in 1970, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance and expand access to quality, community-responsive health care for America’s medically underserved and uninsured. NACHC represents the nation’s network of over 1,200 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which serve over 22 million people through over 9,200 sites located in all of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam.
For more information, please visit www.nachc.org
