Dail-eNews from MDSI

Jamie C. Kowalski Consulting, PerformanSC Supply Chain Ltd announce completion of 2018 Healthcare Supply Chain Insights series
Jamie C. Kowalski Consulting LLC and PerformanSC Supply Chain Ltd announced the completion of the 2018, fourth edition, of their Healthcare Supply Chain Insights series. The series of surveys of healthcare providers who use a consolidated service center (CSC) model for their supply chain and other support services, is based on biennial primary research completed and published since 2012. The researchers are independent consultants, who have helped providers evaluate if there is a strategic fit for and/or feasibility of the CSC model in both the US and Canada healthcare providers. The 2018 edition expands the inputs to include healthcare providers both in Ireland and the UK and provides an extended look into the supply chain metrics that CSCs are using and their numerical values. In addition, it covers developments such as industry consolidation and the intended emergence of Amazon into the healthcare supply chain. Interested parties may contact Jamie Kowalski at jamie.kowalski@jckcllc.com or Lorcan Sheehan at PerformanSC, at lorcan.sheehan@performansc.com for more information.

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Distributor News

Cardinal Health names new CEO of Pharmaceutical Segment
Cardinal Health (Dublin, OH) announced that Victor Crawford join the company as CEO of the Pharmaceutical Segment, effective November 12, 2018. Crawford most recently was COO, Healthcare, Education and Business Dining for Aramark.

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Manufacturer News

B. Braun Premieres Its New Wireless Syringe Pump at NANN 2018
B. Braun Medical Inc (Bethlehem, PA) will premiere the wireless second-generation software for its Perfusor Space Syringe Pump, at the 34th Annual National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) conference from October 17-20, 2018 in Anaheim, California. According to the company, the Perfusor Space Second Generation Syringe Pump is the first syringe pump with air and road transport in the cleared indications for use. It is intended for use on adults, pediatrics, and neonates for the intermittent or continuous delivery of parenteral fluids, enteral fluids, medications, blood, and blood products through clinically accepted routes of administration. These routes include intravenous, intra-arterial, subcutaneous, epidural, and enteral. The Perfusor Space Syringe Pump also has complete integration with DoseTrac, DoseGuard, and AutoCOMPLETE Integrated EMR technology.

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Medtronic launches the Control Workflow to help fight opioid epidemic
Medtronic plc (Dublin, Ireland) announced the US launch of the Control Workflow, an evidence-based approach for use with the SynchroMed II intrathecal drug delivery system ("Medtronic pain pump") that helps physicians wean patients off oral opioids and treat chronic intractable pain. The Control Workflow in combination with the Medtronic pain pump encourages oral opioid elimination and can be used as an alternative to long-term oral opioid therapy for appropriate patients, according to the company. Using the Control Workflow with the Medtronic pain pump gives some chronic pain patients another option that may prove more effective than other therapies. These patients include those taking high dose oral opioids with low efficacy or those who can't tolerate oral opioids due to the side effects, such as constipation, drowsiness, or changes in cognition, according to the company.

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Amsino Medical Group to acquire Smiths Medical's Vernon Hills's manufacturing plant
Amsino Healthcare (USA) Inc, a fully owned subsidiary of Amsino Medical Group, signed a definitive agreement with Smiths Medical ASD Inc to acquire the assets of Smiths' manufacturing plant in Vernon Hills, IL. The transaction includes all assets and infrastructure that currently exist in the facility. The plant has been a long-time FDA registered pharmaceutical manufacturer of essential inhalation therapy, wound care, and other USP grade saline/water-based products for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2018.

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Provider Services News

Optum acquires Avella Specialty Pharmacy
UnitedHealth Group, in its quarterly financial disclosure, reported a previously undisclosed acquisition of a specialty pharmacy based in Phoenix. The company’s Optum prescription drug business acquired two pharmaceutical companies in the third quarter of this year: Genoa Healthcare and a previously undisclosed purchase of Avella Specialty Pharmacy. Financial details of the latter deal were not disclosed.

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Hospital and IDN News

California children's hospitals seek to raise $1.5B with ballot measure
In the November election, California residents will vote on whether to approve a $1.5 billion bond measure to help the state's children's hospitals fund renovations to make them earthquake-resistant and other infrastructure and medical equipment upgrades. If it passes, the bond would affect eight nonprofit hospitals and five University of California hospitals. The California Children's Hospital Association is behind the measure, which goes before voters November 6. The association said taxpayer money is necessary because children's hospitals can't pay for building and technology needs solely through private donations. California children's hospitals have previously asked voters to approve bond measures to help pay for construction and new medical equipment — in 2004 and 2008. Both measures — for $750 million and $980 million, respectively — passed.

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Nurses from 17 HCA hospitals reach tentative labor deal
Registered nurses at 17 hospitals affiliated with HCA Healthcare (Nashville, TN) have reached tentative labor deals, the National Nurses Organizing Committee said. The three-year tentative agreements, come nearly a month after nurses authorized a strike. They cover 7000 RNs at HCA-affiliated hospitals in Florida, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Nevada. They tentatively include additional staffing, pay raises of 4% to 20%, health insurance coverage for RNs and their families, and improved tuition reimbursement. If approved by the nurses, the agreements would run through May 31, 2021, at the hospitals in Florida, Kansas and Missouri, and through June 30, 2021 at the hospitals in Texas and Nevada.

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Healthcare IT News

GHX adds two new leaders
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) (Louisville, CO) added two senior executives, Bob McCarthy, SVP of strategy and corporate development, and Laura Dunbar, SVP of global marketing. McCarthy most recently worked for Level 3 Communications leading the company’s corporate development group in Broomfield, Colorado. Dunbar most recently was VP marketing at GetWellNetwork (Bethesda, MD), a provider of patient engagement technology solutions.

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GPO News

Inmar receives Innovative Technology contract with Vizient for MedEx TubeSafe
Med-Turn Inc, an Inmar Company, announced the company was awarded an Innovative Technology contract with Vizient Inc (Irving, TX). The contract was based on a recommendation of MedEx TubeSafe by hospital experts in this category who serve on one of Vizient's member-led councils. The Med-Turn Inc MedEx TubeSafe is a technology solution that securely tracks medications sent through pneumatic tube systems and ensures they reach their intended location. TubeSafe hardware includes a pharmacy scanner, nurse receiving station, and locks for the carriers that are compatible with major manufacturers' existing pneumatic systems and do not require retrofits or upgrades.

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