To select the Best 50, GHX looked at the performance of more than 4,100 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada connected to the GHX electronic trading exchange. GHX identified the 50 health care organizations that scored highest in areas such as maximizing document automation, Exchange utilization, and trading partner connections during the 2018 calendar year.

“This is a great honor for our organization,” said Gary Rakes, VP of supply chain management for Aspirus. “It takes a high-performing team to effectively run a supply chain and achieve operational excellence. I’m extremely proud that my team is doing our part in helping make Aspirus one of the top health care systems in the country.”

This is the second consecutive year Aspirus has ranked in the “Best 50” list. Aspirus rose from a ranking of 30 in 2017 to 14 in 2018.

“Every year we honor the provider organizations that are setting a very high bar for supply chain excellence,” said Bruce Johnson, president & CEO, GHX. “This is a tremendous accomplishment and reflects the exceptional work these supply chain, finance and materials management teams have undertaken to help put their organization in this ‘top of the industry’ position. The work they are doing serves as a great example to the industry — showing the strategic value of supply chain to tackle costs, remove waste, drive efficiency, and in so doing, help deliver quality patient care.”

The criteria period for the list is from Jan. 1 – Dec. 21, 2018. To qualify for the list, providers must have more than 10,000 PO lines processed and four complete closed quarters on the GHX Exchange.