The Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) is the leading national association for executives in the healthcare resource and materials management profession. They count more than 4,000 active members. So when the organization’s president, Ray Moore, gives his reasons for the group’s continued advocacy for the GS1 Global Location Number (GLN) standard and the 12/31/2010 implementation target date, it makes news.
I was struck by how simply, plainly, and directly Mr. Moore made his points; by how rooted they are in common sense. He summarized AHRMM’s reasons for supporting GLN and 12/31/2010 in only five bullets:
“AHRMM supports GLN for the following reasons:
- The GLN is the global standard for customer identification; 93 other countries already use this number.
- It is already in use in 23 other industries within the U.S., many of whose suppliers also sell to healthcare providers.
- Companies like Wal-Mart, Kroger, Home Depot, Office Max, and others require use of the GLN for all supply chain activities.
- Healthcare is part of a global business community, so a separate standard for just healthcare isn’t warranted.
- U.S. healthcare will be better positioned to leverage additional resources and best practices from other industries as global standards become the norm.”
Can anyone argue with that? For more about AHRMM’s recently stated reaffirmation of GLN support, their news release is posted here.
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