Hospital hops into bed with Thunder Bay purchasing company

Hospitals and their patients across northern Ontario will benefit, it is claimed, from a new partnership announced at a media conference held at Sault Area Hospital (SAH) Thursday.

A total of 36 hospitals, under the Northeast LHIN (including SAH) and the Northwest LHIN will be purchasing an array of healthcare goods and services through Northern Supply Chain.

Derek Gascoigne, Northern Supply Chain general manager, said the Thunder Bay group, drawing on membership fees paid by participating hospitals, will be paying for a number of hospital needs, such as repairs and renovations to ordering of medical equipment and supplies.

The new partnership comes with $440,000 in startup funding for membership fees from the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.

All members of the new group, including smaller northern Ontario hospitals, will benefit, said Northern Supply Chain.

The annual membership fee, said Gascoigne and Max Liedke, SAH vice president and chief financial officer, will be outweighed by the savings Northern Supply Chain states it will be able to achieve.

The group says it can generate seven dollars in savings for every dollar drawn from membership fees.

Together, northern hospitals will have more buying power with Northern Supply Chain, hence the savings, Gascoigne told SooToday.

“Every time we can drive down the cost of a syringe, a bandage, a consulting arrangement, a piece of capital equipment, that’s money that sits there to reinvest in more capital equipment, or it can be given toward the hospital bedside.”

“Every time we save $100,000 for example, that’s enough money for a full-time nurse at the bedside of a patient,” Gascoigne said.

“This is a complement to what we already have in place, we as an organization for years have been a part of buying groups, such as HealthPro…but that only covers part of what we purchase,” Liedke said.

“This arrangement gives us access to others, it gives us a broader base from which to negotiate, a better opportunity to make sure most of the things we purchase will be covered off by all of these groups.”  

The government signed off on the new arrangement with Northern Supply Chain in July, after stakeholders such as SAH and the Northeast LHIN had been working on the partnership for 18 months.