LEVERKUSEN, Germany and Westminster, Colo., June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Market4care, the largest provider of e-procurement and other supply chain services to hospitals and healthcare suppliers in the Netherlands, has joined GHX, LLC (GHX) under an acquisition announced today. Together, Market4care and GHX Europe, which currently provides similar services with its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, now serve the entire Benelux (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) market. The acquisition will deliver greater efficiencies to the healthcare supply chain in Europe by enabling more hospitals and suppliers to conduct business with one another electronically. Together, the two companies currently serve more then 900 hospitals and 250 suppliers in Europe. GHX also enables e-procurement among more than 6000 hospitals and 600 suppliers in North America. Shareholders of both organizations have approved the acquisition, which takes effect immediately. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Prior to the acquisition, GHX Europe and Market4care had entered into a roaming agreement through which hospitals connected to Market4care and suppliers connected to GHX Europe were able to conduct business electronically. "By joining together as a single company, GHX Europe and Market4care can streamline that process and eliminate redundant costs associated with supporting two trading exchanges and catalog management services," says Peter Elmer, vice president, GHX Europe. "As a result, we can invest our resources in deploying our combined solutions to a greater number of customers, while leveraging product development resources in North America."
With its ownership including manufacturers, distributors, group purchasing organizations and hospitals, GHX provides value across the entire healthcare supply chain. Both hospitals and their suppliers benefit by automating the purchasing process and converting manual orders to electronic, which cost five to seven times less expensive to process.
Market4care currently serves more than 20 percent of all Dutch hospitals, providing them with the ability to send and receive electronic transactions. The company's catalog management service contains more than 30 million items from more than 220 multinational and regional suppliers. "Now our hospitals will have access to even more suppliers and an even larger product portfolio," says Eric Riegen with Market4care who will serve as managing director with GHX Europe.
Healthcare suppliers and hospitals across Europe will also benefit through greater standardization of business processes. Many healthcare suppliers operate on a global basis and are looking for opportunities to standardize how they do business across multiple countries. According to B. Braun, continued market consolidation among e-procurement providers in Europe will enable suppliers and their customers to utilize a common messaging platform to streamline business processes and lower operating costs.
Hospitals and suppliers working with Market4care will continue to utilize the same products and services as they have in the past, while GHX Europe works to consolidate its infrastructure across Europe. At that point, all GHX Europe customers will have access to the very best of what has been developed in Europe and in North America, as well as an expanded universe of trading partners.
In addition to serving customers in the United Kingdom, the Benelux countries, Germany and Austria, GHX Europe also operates in France and Spain under an existing roaming agreement.
About GHX
GHX enables healthcare providers and suppliers in North America and Europe to reduce costs and improve margins by automating processes, reducing operating expenses and increasing knowledge-based decision making. Products and services include trading partner connectivity, order and contract management and validation, data synchronization, sales force automation and business intelligence. Equity owners of GHX are Abbott Exchange, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; B. Braun Medical Inc.; Becton, Dickinson & Co.; Boston Scientific Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Fisher Scientific International, Inc.; GE Healthcare; HCA; Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.; McKesson Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Owens & Minor; Premier, Inc.; Siemens; Tyco Healthcare Group, LP; University HealthSystem Consortium; and VHA Inc. For more information, visit http://www.ghx.com/
GHX
CONTACT: Daniela Saalfrank of GHX Europe, +49-214-3120-102,
daniela.saalfrank@ghxeurope.com, or Karen Conway of GHX, +1-719-488-0359,
cell, +1-303-564-2147, voice mail, +1-720-887-7215, kconway@ghx.com; or Jean
Pierre Bogers of Market4care, +0031-35-6460140, Bogers@market4care.com
Web site: http://www.ghx.com/
