Not that I want to share the “goings-on” of my personal life through a blog, but I thought my recent experience in the operating room (OR) was just a classic case of why B2B ecommerce is critical especially in the medical field dealing with life and death situations.  OK, maybe not life and death, but while you are on the operating table, the line between life and death gets pretty darn blurry. 

A few months ago, I was told by a gastroenterologist that I had gall stones.  “Gall stones?  What the hell are those and why do I have them?  I eat right, exercise regularly and try to keep stress to a minimum.  Well, the doctor told me that some people just get them, but women over 40 are twice as likely to get them than men (another great advantage of being a woman).  Regarding the age thing, let’s just leave that one alone, shall we? 

Anyway, I accepted my fate and was sure all I needed was some gross, disgusting tasting orange liquid that would magically make them go away and I would be on my way to recovery.  Needless to say the doctor laughed.  He then told me the only way to get rid of them forever was to remove my gall bladder.  Remove it? Don’t I need my gall bladder?  Apparently, the answer is no.  It is considered a “non-essential” organ. 

So, there I was on the operating table with my non-essential, non-functioning organ waiting for the happy stuff to be injected into my veins when I hear the surgeon ask one of the nurses, “did we replace the surgical knot pusher?”  The nurse replied, “no, the shipment didn’t arrive yet.”  As I was about to scream, “Get me off this table!”, it was too late.  I was in LaLa Land and those words were the last thing I heard until I woke up 1 hour later. 

Once I got my bearings, I asked the doctor about the missing surgical knot pusher.  I told him why I was asking (he was relieved I wasn’t an attorney) and he called the nurse and the office manager.  Apparently, when the office manager didn’t receive the knot pusher from supplier #1, she ordered another one from supplier #2 and cancelled #1’s order. Supplier #1 couldn’t locate the original knot pusher and suspected it was already on the truck.  So now several knot pushers are going to arrive at the Surgical Center’s door step and so will 2 invoices that will have to be reconciled with the back-office system.  In addition, I also found out that the office manager has had previous on-time order issues with supplier #1.  

Had this Surgery Center leveraged GXS’ supply chain visibility solutions it could be rest assured it could handle the complex demands of the medical device supply chain. Through integrated work flow processes via the web, the surgeons and device companies could collaborate around scheduled surgeries, orders, and shipments.  The Surgery Center would also have access to supplier scorecards that would enable it to negotiate better terms and count on predictable deliveries.   All this would result in faster inventory turns, lower error rates, shorter invoice and payment cycles and most of all,  less freaked out over 40 year old women on the operating table who know something about supply chain optimization! 

Let me go on record that the Surgical Center was not at all negligible using an older knot pusher.  But, what if that part was a more critical component?  Would I have been at more risk?  Would I have had to reschedule my surgery? I don’t dare think about it.  GXS spends much of its investment in improving the retail, automotive, high-tech and financial supply chains. As you can imagine, I have not been in favor of serving another vertical market - just ask our VP of Product Marketing what my opinion has been.  But, since my surgery, I think I’ve changed my tune a little bit.   I am now in favor of helping the healthcare/medical community achieve better supply chain visibility.  Actually, I see it as our obligation to save MANKIND!