The year was 1999. The date was April 28.
It was the official launch of the industry’s newest GPO: HealthTrust Purchasing Group (HPG). Whether you prefer to think in decades (it’s two-and-a-half), or as a quarter of a century, we are honored to commemorate 25 years in business. And, while still “HPG” in 2024, we are better known in the marketplace now as HealthTrust Performance Group. The expansion of our capabilities beyond group purchasing has enabled us to meet the changing needs of our member organizations in response to an increasingly complex healthcare environment.
An adaptable partner
I was honored to join HealthTrust in 2008—first as its Chief Operating Officer, and then as President and CEO when Jim Fitzgerald retired in 2012. I am proud of both our legacy and an adaptability that enables us to truly partner with our hospital and health system members through our Advisory Services, empowering them to achieve performance improvement goals for enhanced operations, medical device standardization, purchased services spend optimization, clinical integration, staffing challenges and more.
I am even more proud, however, of how we have rallied to respond when there are time-sensitive, lives-at-stake needs that have arisen over the last 25 years, from emergency response events such as Hurricane Katrina or, most recently, the COVID pandemic. Suddenly, supply disruption, product and staffing shortages, and the need for clinical resources and information required an all-hands-on-deck approach as the world navigated uncharted waters. We came out stronger and more resilient, with risk mitigation strategies to avoid similar supply shortages should we ever face another pandemic or global crisis.
Advantage from an insider’s view
It is daily accountability to some of the nation’s leading health systems that provides us with an insider’s view. None of our competitors has the ability to solve today’s toughest challenges through the lens of a trusted partner because we are right there with you—experiencing and solving for the very same challenges. Some of our colleagues have actually delivered frontline patient care while others have spent decades managing supply costs, warehouses and distribution. This “operator advantage” informs every assessment and recommendation we make to help you achieve improvements in cost, quality and patient outcomes.
Here’s to 25 years
We look forward to celebrating our 25th anniversary with our member and supplier partners during the 2024 HealthTrust University Conference, August 12–14. I hope you are making plans to join us in Orlando for two-and-a-half days of inspiring keynotes, insightful education sessions, thoughtful networking, and important one-on-one conversations with HealthTrust team members and our supplier sponsors and exhibitors.
Know that we value your partnership and are alongside you for the long haul. Our ability to meet the challenges of the future by further evolving our capabilities and solutions is to the benefit of us all. HealthTrust will be there—for the next 25 years and beyond—empowering you to stay focused on your mission of delivering quality patient care.
Ed Jones
President/CEO, HealthTrust Performance Group
Publisher, The Source magazine
Members with questions about attending HTU should contact their HealthTrust Account Manager or facility allocation representative. Suppliers who have not yet made their reservation to exhibit at HTU are encouraged to contact HTUExhibitors@bcdme.com for details and pricing.
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