The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants

Defining Global Location Numbers in Hospital Supply Chain Management

By Adam Higman and Brian Mullahey

By Kristin Spenik and Jerzy Kaczor

Global Location Numbers (GLNs) are widely used throughout healthcare supply chain groups.

The Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security defines a GLN as a unique, 13-digit number that links the name, industry, and address of a particular item that pinpoints the “legal, functional, or physical location within a business or organizational entity”, in particular hospitals and healthcare organizations.

• Legal: Hospitals, healthcare organizations, distributors, suppliers, freight carriers, etc.
• Functional: Specific departments within legal entities, i.e. purchasing departments, nursing stations, wards, etc. in hospitals
• Physical: Hospital rooms, hospital wings, cabinets, shelving units, delivery points, loading docks, warehouses, etc.

AHRMM

According to the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management, the premier organization for healthcare supply chain professionals, global locations numbers can recover your facility’s revenue stream, enhance the accuracy of documenting Group Purchasing Organization [GPO] sales, and end the use “of single purpose proprietary supplier numbers”.

The Objective

The ultimate objective is getting everyone involved in the supply chain process to use identical numbers.

For instance, if the GPO communicates to the manufacturer that your hospital utilizes a specific GLN, then it is more likely that the manufacturer will associate the hospital’s materials and supplies with the correct GPO contract price.

In addition, if distributors utilize GLNs along with manufacturers and producers to determine the manufacturer’s price that was given, the hospital will likely secure the correct rate when purchasing supplies directly from distributors.

Conclusion

Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

LEXICONS: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

PHYSICIANS: www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com

PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731

CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900

ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

PODIATRISTS: www.PodiatryPrep.com

BLOG: www.MedicalExecutivePost.com

Filed under: Glossary Terms, Information Technology | Tagged: AHRMM, Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management, Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security, GLNs, Global Location Numbers, GPO, Hospital Supply Chain Management, SCM | Leave a comment »