St. John Health System First to Use medibuy's eBuy; Easy Interface to Existing Materials Management Systems

Business Wire, Nov 28, 2000

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 2000

medibuy.com Inc., an e-commerce solution for healthcare supply chain efficiency, announced today it has signed an agreement with St. John Health System (SJHS), an integrated healthcare delivery network based in Tulsa, Okla.

St. John Health System is the first organization to use eBuy, medibuy's new order processing integration solution. eBuy integrates with existing materials management information systems (MMIS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to send and receive orders to hospitals' key suppliers. In the case of SJHS, eBuy replaces its existing electronic data interchange (EDI) technology with an Internet-based procurement solution.

St. John Health System, a leader in radiology, cardiology, oncology, urology, wellness and physical rehabilitation, chose medibuy in part because of eBuy's ability to integrate seamlessly with the materials management system already in place. medibuy's eBuy uses leading enterprise application integration (EAI) software and extensible markup language (XML) to interface with existing MMIS systems that healthcare organizations have in place with frequently used suppliers.

St. John is using eBuy to order products and handle all purchase orders with its primary supplier while still receiving the pre-negotiated contract pricing it receives as a Consorta GPO shareholder. St. John will process approximately 22 percent of its purchase order line item volume through medibuy, accounting for nearly 65 percent of its EDI PO volume from its primary suppliers. St. John will soon have the ability to place a variety of orders with multiple suppliers through this single site, further increasing efficiency throughout its supply chain.

"When St. John decided it wanted to enter the world of e-commerce we examined our options closely and chose to work with medibuy," explained George C. Kendall, senior vice president and CIO of St. John Health System. "We were consistently impressed with the quality of the management team and the strong technology and healthcare expertise."

"St. John Health System is known for its innovative use of information technology," said Dennis Murphy, president and CEO of medibuy. "Having one of the most wired hospitals in America choose to work with us is a great compliment."

About St. John Health System

St. John Health System is sponsored by Marian Health System, the nation's eighth-largest Catholic healthcare organization. Organizations affiliated with St. John Health System include St. John Medical Center, Tulsa, Okla.; St. John Sapulpa, Sapulpa, Okla.; Jane Phillips Medical Center, Bartlesville, Okla.; St. John Villas, a network of senior living centers located throughout northeast Oklahoma; CommunityCare Managed Healthcare Plans of Oklahoma; Regional Medical Laboratory; WorkMed Occupational Health Network; Physicians Support Services Inc., a company offering comprehensive management services to physician offices; and OMNI Medical Group, a group of more than 70 primary care physicians with offices throughout northeast Oklahoma. For more information on St. John Health System, please visit its Web site at www.StJohnPulseLine.com.

About medibuy

medibuy operates a business-to-business Internet marketplace for the efficient management, purchase and sale of medical and non-medical products, equipment and services used by the healthcare industry. Through its online marketplace, medibuy enables buyers and sellers to reduce many of the inefficiencies of the traditional healthcare supply chain and provides substantial benefits to participating buyers and sellers by reducing order processing and tracking costs and improving the utilization of data relating to products, equipment, services, transactions and market trends. medibuy has a growing network of strategic relationships with technology and healthcare leaders including; Premier Inc., HCA and WebMD Corp. For more information on medibuy or to register with the company, please visit the company's Web site at www.medibuy.com.