Hospitals are leaving billions on the table when it comes to the U.S. supply chain, according to a new study from Navigant that found unnecessary supply chain spending reached $25.7 billion a year.

While the loudest buzz around AI in healthcare continues to emanate from clinical and research quarters, an easily overlooked subpopulation is watching with keen interest: hospital supply-chain executives and the vendor reps who call on them.

Healthcare improvement company Premier has teamed up with a cognitive supply chain company, Pensiamo, to tackle drug supply chain with a new AI-powered solution.

Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC(GHX), a healthcare business and data automation company, has added two senior executives to support and amplify the company’s growth plans.

Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., has announced a new joint venture with Australia-based hospital operator Ramsay Health Care Limited to create a global supply chain to reduce costs for Ascension’s 2,600 sites of care and the more than 230 facilities Ramsay operates in six countries.

In a survey conducted by Global Healthcare Exchange, some of the top providers for supply chain performance said making better use of data would be their No. 1 priority this year, either through expanded analytics or standardizing their data process across the organization.

When Indiana’s Goshen Health decided to de-affiliate from Indiana University Health in 2016, it knew its supply costs were going to increase for its 122-bed hospital, cancer center and 27 physician practice locations, according to chief financial officer Amy Floria. That meant waste in the supply chain had to be cut out—like the 80 percent of hospital supplies which had sat untouched on a shelf for two years.

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