Medline inks group purchasing partnership with Community Health Ventures

MUNDELEIN - Community Health Ventures recently awarded a group purchasing agreement to Medline under its Value in Purchasing (VIP) Program.

Community Health Ventures is the business development affiliate of the National Association of Community Health Centers that negotiates group purchasing agreements to help centers reduce costs and remain competitive, The VIP program is the only national group purchasing program endorsed by NACHC.

Through the partnership, Medline is providing guaranteed cost savings on its portfolio of patient-care products, such as gloves, minor procedure trays and point-of-care tests to VIP members at a savings of approximately 10 percent. Medline will also offer value-added programs on pertinent topics such as infection control and safety, and provide members access to free online education through Medline University to help staff members perform at their very best.

"With Medline's 50-plus years of supply chain experience across the care continuum, we bring effective insights and strategies in supply chain so community health centers can focus on caring for patients. We're committed to driving results for our customers and providing VIP members with customized solutions that will help them achieve maximum efficiency," said Greg Smith, vice president of community and rural health sales at Medline.

To help VIP members receive their products when and where they need them, more than 40 Medline distribution centers are located in every major metropolitan area across the country. In addition, the company has its own fleet of more than 450 trucks and a dedicated field sales team that can consult with VIP members on products and clinical solutions.

"Our focus on a day-to-day basis is to develop and strengthen partnerships with the vendor community that demonstrates they can provide a benefit to health centers in some way," said Danny Hawkins, CHV's senior vice president. "Whether that benefit comes in the form of lower prices on the products used by health centers or by expanding our contract formularies to include new product lines, CHV is constantly working to identify those opportunities. CHV, and most importantly health centers, have found just such an opportunity with our partnership with Medline."

The contract is in effect through Feb. 8, 2019.