UPMC Turns to Toreion to Improve Supply Chain Efficiency
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 23, 2012 – In a bold effort to reduce supply chain costs while challenging conventional health care practices, UPMC has successfully moved all of its electronic transactions with suppliers to an electronic data interchange (EDI) solution from Toreion Corp. of Ontario, Canada.
“Toreion’s innovative platform makes it easy and cost-effective for suppliers to do business with us electronically, and it allows our vendors to avoid the high costs of using the standard health care-only exchange,” said James Szilagy, chief supply chain officer at UPMC. “With Toreion, we are proving that electronic data exchange in health care should be viewed and priced as a commodity, as it is in other established industries, allowing us to focus even more of our resources on world-class patient care.”
With Toreion’s flexible solution, UPMC and its suppliers can exchange data through a variety of methods instead of being forced through a health care-only hub. Particularly for suppliers that primarily serve non-health care customers, this approach can avoid the duplication and additional costs of processing transactions through the kind of health care-only EDI platform that is typical in the industry.
Toreion’s technology improves efficiency at UPMC by providing automated email reminders that help track supplier acknowledgments of dispatched purchase orders. Customized reports are sent daily to UPMC’s buyers, including information on back-orders, price changes and out-of-stock situations, enabling supply chain staff to focus real-time on critical activities without having to use multiple websites and passwords. Additionally, Toreion’s technology allows suppliers to electronically submit invoices according to customer-specific standards, eliminating paper documents and processing costs.
Based on the savings and improved functionality achieved at UPMC, privately held Toreion and Prodigo Solutions LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of UPMC, have entered into a co-development and marketing relationship to provide similar benefits to others in the health care industry.
“We are excited to count UPMC, with its global reputation for innovation and supply chain expertise, among our customers. Together, we will ensure that Toreion’s technology continues to meet the rapidly changing needs of health care providers so that they can better serve their patients,” said Marlin Doner, vice president of corporate development at Toreion.