Ascension and Ramsay Health Care Limited announce they are partnering in a new global supply chain joint venture, with the goal of combining their purchasing power to help make healthcare more affordable.

The venture will be owned equally by Ascension, based in St Louis, and Ramsay, headquartered in Sydney, Australia. Two Ascension subsidiaries—Ascension Holdings International and The Resource Group, Ascension’s GPO and strategic sourcing subsidiary—will work with Ramsay’s International Procurement Office to develop and operationalize the new global healthcare buying group, according to a media release from Ascension.

“Ascension is continually exploring potential opportunities to extend our reach internationally and make healthcare more affordable for those we serve,” says Anthony R. Tersigni, EdD, FACHE, president and chief executive officer, Ascension. “As we looked for partners to help us improve the quality and reduce the costs of the millions of items our caregivers use to provide compassionate, personalized care, we were tremendously impressed by Ramsay Health Care, whose values and mission align closely with our own.”

“This new global healthcare buying group between Ascension and Ramsay, will seek products internationally that are able to deliver the high level of service and clinical outcomes that our patients have come to expect,” states Ramsay’s group managing director and chief executive officer, Craig McNally, in the release.

“This partnership between Ramsay and Ascension will allow us to share learnings, best practice, and industry knowledge to seek improved quality and outcomes whilst also reducing costs,” he adds.

The organization already has begun exploring alternatives to traditional approaches to create a more efficient technology platform for ordering, tracking, logistics, and fulfillment, per the release.

[Source(s): Ascension, Business Wire]