Global Location Numbers (GLN) for the Healthcare Industry
written by Julie Heikkinen, Alpha Source Marketing Coordinator
According to the Efficient Healthcare Consumer
Response study published in 1996, $11 billion is wasted each year in the health
care supply chain, largely due to the fact that data standards are either
lacking entirely or not as widely used or well-developed as in various other
industries.
In
response to these inefficiencies and waste, GS1, a global organization dedicated to the design and implementation of
standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and
demand chains, developed the Global Location Number (GLN) for the Healthcare
Industry.
What is
a GLN and how will it work?
The Global Location Number was developed to create
a common language and establish a global standard in the Healthcare Industry
Supply Chain. It will be used to
identify physical locations including the addresses of buildings, loading docks,
warehouses, delivery points, or legal entities such as individual companies and
subsidiaries. Similar to retail UPC codes, the GLN will provide a standard
format for recording company and product information.
The GLN system will create a database for all
involved in the healthcare supply chain called the GLN Registry. The GLN Registry will be operated by GS1 US,
a non-profit subsidiary of GS1 dedicated to establishing and promoting global
standards and tools for collaborative commerce.
The GLN Registry will keep track of all company names, addresses, class
of trade and organizational hierarchy including information about each provider
and the suppliers they do business with. The registry will be available online
at any time of day and will be the only place that stores all present and past
GLN data allowing for much simpler purchase transactions that take place within
the
According to the GS1, utilizing the GLN will
eliminate the need for individual companies to create and maintain
their own database of organizations and entities with which they do business. When negotiating contracts
between GPOs, distributors and manufacturers, each organization will have
access to the same information through the GLN Registry. Each stakeholder will always know exactly who
they are talking about and the specific products when price levels are set.
Every entity will be able to track business transactions with the same
identification number and information will be easier to transfer.
Currently, the GLN system has been adopted in
Europe and is now on track to become a standard for the
For additional information please visit www.gs1.org, www.chestandards.org, or www.ghx.com.
Alpha Source, Inc. * The Source Powering Your