The main goal is to achieve savings of between 10 and 15%.

Bionexo and USP Hospitales have closed a strategic deal which, among other things, consists of implementing the Bionexo electronic purchasing platform, whose main objective is to achieve savings of between 10 and 15% on the total purchase volume made by the hospital group.
With a network of 35 health centers located in big Spanish cities, USP Hospitales is the largest private hospitals network in Spain.       
The implementation of the platform will start in Seville, where the group has the USP Clínica Sagrado Corazón. Its use will bring advantages to all of the suppliers of the USP Hospitales network because they will be able to work with transparency, increased productivity and better competitiveness.
The objective of the agreement to obtain the Bionexo tool is to increase productivity by means of direct and indirect cost reduction, to help purchasing departments familiarize themselves with the use of a paperless system and to increase competitiveness by enabling the users to gain access to the offers made by all the suppliers.   

The companies will develop common projects in international markets
Bionexo and USP Hospitales are putting their minds to carrying out collaborative work in their markets. In the case of Europe, with a focus on Portugal and Morocco, where USP is also present, and in Latin America, where Bionexo constantly expands its virtual community of more than 3,600 suppliers, 300 hospitals and na annual transaction volume of approximately US$ 400 million.     

USP Hospitales

Founded in 1998 by its President and CEO, Gabriel Masfurroll, headquartered in Barcelona and keeping offices in Madrid, USP Hospitales is a privately-owned network, which is integrated and comprehensive, including services of hospital care, day surgery centers, diagnosis centers and policlinics. The business has consolidated its position as market leader as a healthcare provider, under the pillar of its own prestigious brand, which offers an alternative in healthcare services of high quality, cutting edge technology and rigorous professional ethics.      
With 3,500 employees and 2,500 doctors, the network serves annually more than two million patients and registers 180,000 visits, 70,000 surgeries, 8,500 deliveries and 200,000 emergency room services. Since it was founded the group has been developing na active investiment policy estimated at € 290 milhões and closed the last financial year of 2007 with a business volume of € 276 milhões and a gross profit (EBITDA) of € 35 million, with a forecast for 2008 of € 42,5 million (EBITDA) and € 322 million in business volume.

On February 22, Bionexo Ibérica, which has been operating in Spain since the second half of last year, has signed an agreement with ACES (Catalana d’Establiments Sanitaris Group), leader in the  Catalan private hospitals sector, to support the promotion of the platform among its members. The agreement was signed by Lluís Monset i Castells, General Director of ACES, and Juan Pablo Villalobos, Operations Director of Bionexo Ibérica S.A.

ACES is made up of fast-growing private institutions in Spain, which operate mainly in the Catalunya region. ACES is comprised of more than 120 institutions, including most hospitals and other private companies which operate in the healthcare industry.   

Common goal: improving the purchasing management of the member institutions.           

This partnership is the starting point for a strategic alliance between both entities, which are renowned in the hospital sector. According to the Director of ACES, foolproof implementation, transparency in the processes and increase in productivity with a potential to cost reduction generated by the Bionexo platform, represent an opportunity to improve the purchasing management of the member institutions.   

The Director of Operations of Bionexo Ibérica, Juan Pablo Villalobos, points out that “We share common goals about the priority of improving purchasing management in the institutions, increasing productivity, increasing quality, and reducing costs. Therefore, we consider ACES a strategic ally in the process of implementing our platform in Spain.”

This partnership will be developed through presentations, seminars, workshops, training courses, among other activities aimed at the 121 members that make up part of ACES. Bionexo will sponsor ACES with regards to them electronic commerce and will offer special conditions to the member institutions. ACES will promote the use of electronic tools for the purchase of hospital supplies as well as the Bionexo website among its members: www.bionexo.es

After the operations in Argentina, Spain, and Mexico, Bionexo participates in event in Colombia with the objective of contributing to the modernization of the way hospitals and local clinics are managed. The meeting was held last month at The Colombian Association of Hospitals and Clinics. The President of Bionexo Brazil, Mauricio De Lazzari Barbosa, has said that the Colombian association intends to start a partnership to implant the platform for joint hospital supplies purchases on-line. In Brazil Bionexo has already gone into partnership with Anahp (National Association of Private Hospitals), similar to the Colombia association, which implemented in its hospitals the electronic system of joint purchases. The institutions have achieved costs reduction, speed, and transparency in the purchasing process.

The association

The Colombian Association is a professional association which represents the private institutions and intends to promote technical and admistrative strengthening of the member institutions by means of improvements in management, information, communication, skills and representation. Bionexo went to Colombia because it was invited by the association, which participated in an event in the sector (Hospitalar 2008) in Brazil. The association’s objective is to strengthen and maintain its capability of participating in discussions concerning healthcare in Colombia as well as to place the hospital sector in a privileged position in the system.

The Santa Tecla Foundation was established in the Fifteenth Century, in the year 1464, and is based in Tarragona, in Spain. The is responsible for managing 14 institutions, among which The El Milagro Hospital, state of Salta, in northern Argentina and the renowned Sant Pau Hospital as well as The Santa Tecla Hospital in Catalúnia, Spain.

According to Josep Andreu Figueras, Supplies Director of the Santa Tecla Network, "In the present scenario of economic slowdown it is fundamental that the sanitation institutions seek ways to control expenditure without putting the quality of the services at risk. “For 2009, Bionexo is our defense weapon to face the crisis, thus enabling us to have a significant reduction in expenditure.”

Hospitals in countries which have been more severely affected than Brazil (in Argentina and in Spain) have made the decision to adopt Bionexo as a tool for their purchasing management. They understand the potential of our community as one important partner to face the upcoming scenario.

During the week of June 9 to 13, Bionexo took one more step forward in the integration and international relations of our community.

Managers of leading healthcare institutions from Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Brazil met during the Hospitalar 2008 tradefair  as well as took part in a debate held in our São Paulo office.

The specialists had the chance to analyze the present situation of the health areas in Europe and Latin America, exchange experiences and get to know the management model of Brazilian Health Institutions. On the 9, on the eve of the opening of Hospitalar 2008, Bionexo held a meeting at the company’s headquarters and each representative had the opportunity to present and discuss the challenges faced in the health area by the different countries and the solutions adopted to run the institutions.        
Besides the international delegation, the following Brazilian participants took part in the event: the superintendent of ANAHP (Associação Nacional dos Hospitais Privados), Roberto Cury; the superintendent of the Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein and the vice-president of ANAHP, José Henrique Germann Ferreira; Professor. Dr. José Afonso Matos, of Planisa; o Director of the  Hospital 9 de Julho, Luiz de Luca; the president of Hospital Santa Rosa, José Ricardo Melo, of Hospital Santa Rosa from Cuiabá and Dr. Ivan Lima of Hospital Meridional do Espírito Santo.

“The company made it possible for the healthcare institutions meet during Hospitalar 2008’, commented the president of Bionexo Brasil, Mauricio De Lazzari Barbosa. ‘Knowing more about the cutting edge Brazilian experience speeds up the process for the implantation of the platform in these countries’, said Barbosa. ‘Big and medium-sized hospitals can see the scenario in advance as well as get a feel for how the Bionexo platform works in Brazil’, explains Marcelo Salinas, president of Bionexo Argentina.     
Because of Hospitalar institutions which did not know each other will be able to start partnerships and business transactions.  ADECRA (Asociación de Clínicas, Sanatorios y Hospitales Privados de la República Argentina), for example, brought to the event valuable information about the Argentinean Hospital sector. One of the guests was Gabriel Masfurrol, president of the Spanish group USP Hospitales, which congregates 13 institutions in Spain. Masfurrol commented about the rapid privatization of the healthcare sector in Spain and places Brazil as ‘a trend-setter in the healthcare sector’. Masfurroll also showed how USP Hospitales became the biggest private network of the country in 8 years.

The leaderships participated in a meeting at Bionexo’s headquarters in São Paulo before the tradefair opened and then held discussions and meetings during Hospitalar. Bionexo presented its international purchasing project, through which hospitals in Brazil will be able to purchase online from overseas suppliers. We also presented the successful implantation of the OPMEnexo in the Nove de Julho (SP) and São Rafael (BA) Hospitals.

It has been noticed in the sector that in these countries, mainly in Argentina and Brazil, hospitals go through a similar situation. Most hospitals seek modernization, better administrative and information management, cost reduction, among other things as they deal with challenges.

Spanish consultant advises sector on increasing spending due to the aging population, a worldwide reality that increases the time spent in both private and public systems.

Investments in preventive medicine, outsourcing of services in hospitals, upgrading of purchase systems and the integration of both private and public administrations.

These are some of the strategies adopted against the increase in healthcare spending resulting from the aging population, a worldwide fact. The plans are presented by Spain’s healthcare management specialist, Julio Villalobos Hidalgo, during an interview for Bionexo.

In Spain alone, the healthcare budget has tripled in the last 20 years. Currently, 8.1% of Spain’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is invested in healthcare.

The aging population (which increases the time period people use the healthcare system) and technological implementations are the leading factors that bring about the increase in healthcare spending. According to Villalobos, 48% of hospital spending go to patients who are older than 65.

Spain has one of the highest rates of elderly population in the world, losing only to Japan. In 2002, 22% of the population was aged over 60, and in 2050, they will reach the figure of 44%. According to Villalobos, In Spain, half of what people over 65 spend on is medication.

“The aging of the population is not a problem, but a fact, which portrays the advances in medicine. It’s a successful scenario, it means that people are living longer lives”, reflects Villalobos. The average rates for Spain’s aging population are higher than European rates. In 2002, 20% were older than 60, and in 2050 they will figure as 37% of the total population.

Strategies

The specialist assesses that Spain’s healthcare system infrastructure is very similar to that in Brazil, bearing differences in caretaking (resource application). As it is, he points out four strategies that have been adopted in Spain aimed at controlling the increase in healthcare spending.

According to him, investing in preventive medicine is an economic path which yields practical results. The second strategy is the integration of the support areas. In Spain, the integration of primary attention, hospital’s attention, socio-sanitary attention and mental health are in effect. “This will allow the population to obtain the best support possible, with lower cost”.

The increase of productivity in public systems is the third strategy suggested by Villalobos. The public network needs to expand its planning, which includes the improvement in the purchase system. The outsourcing of non-clinical systems (such as cleaning, purchases and snack bars) from public hospitals contributes to the increase in productivity and profitability.

The fourth strategy involves allying public administration with private administration, once public hospitals start having greater competitiveness.

Investment

“More focus on healthcare demands greater investment”, quotes Villalobos.
He stresses that one of the biggest problems public healthcare faces is funding. In Spain, the healthcare model is based on the public system, which is fueled by taxes.

From all that is invested in healthcare in Spain, 71% is public and 29% private. “In Spain, use of the private healthcare system is an alternative. Healthcare is guaranteed by constitutional rights.

Access to healthcare

For Villalobos, Latin American countries ought to seek European examples for healthcare efforts, which premise undivided attention to citizens, guaranteed by the state. According to him, it’s worrying to see the trend among these countries to try and resemble the USA’s model, which invest less than 20% of the GDP in healthcare, and leave 40% of the population unattended.

Well-being

The increase in spending due to the aging population affects all levels of the well-being society in Europe, involving various sectors, such as education, welfare and retirement, healthcare and aid for disabled people (counting on a specific services or aid within healthcare).

In Spain, 32% of people over 65 have some sort of disability and depend on medical care or on multi-disciplinary assistance. A new law in Spain, the Law of Attention on Dependency, increased focus on healthcare and includes this type of user to the public service.

Bionexo is a reference in electronic hospital purchases in Brazil and in Argentina and is now expanding to Europe. The company, which is the largest in the sector in Latin America, exports services and a new culture in purchase management, having Spain as the springboard for this new region.

Transparency in the purchase process, agility, cost reduction and a new vision towards corporate posture and the benefits of online acquisition of medications and hospital material add up to a series of attributions that the global market can attain through Bionexo.

Counting on 700 hospitals in Spain, Bionexo's platform will represent a transformation in hospital purchase management with the modernization of the process.

Bionexo presented tools and means against hospital and supplier resistance toward online purchases. Previous experiences from unsuccessful companies have left a stigma in the market, which was only overcome by Bionexo's platform solutions.

According to Bionexo's executive Mauricio De Lazzari Barbosa, the European market takes other variables into account, for instance, the fact that Bionexo doesn't charge suppliers, the well-functioning of the network, and the performance of the electronic community Managing Council. As a result, the market was sensitive to the fact that online purchasing process is irreversible and is actually a great partner in the evolution of the healthcare sector. In Europe, the healthcare sector accumulates problems such as increasing demand and spending as a result of the aging population as well as a bottleneck in services availability, which brings about longer waiting lines.

Iberian Peninsula
Bionexo's expansion plan includes markets from other countries of the Iberian Peninsula, such as Portugal, and Latin America, in which it already is the leading hospital purchase community. This year the company started its operations in Spain, where it invested close to 1 million Euros (its own capital). Bionexo already operates in Brasil and in Argentina, and is planning on kicking off in the beginning of 2008 in Mexico. In the last year, Bionexo has witnessed a 25% increase in the transacted volume. In 2006, the financial activity amounted to US$ 270 million, and in 2007 it rose to US$ 335 million.

Bionexo , the biggest community for electronic hospital purchases in Latin America, strengthens its expansion plan into Europe and invests 1 million Euros in Spain, which holds a market of 700 hospitals. Bionexo, which began its operations in the European market in 2007, also plans to operate in countries within the Iberian Peninsula, such as Portugal. In Latin America, it has a unit in Argentina and will start operating in Mexico at the beginning of 2008.

In Brazil, Bionexo has witnessed an increase of 50% in the online transaction volume in the last 12 months. In 2006, the financial activity amounted to US$ 270 million, and in 2007 it reached US$ 335 million. At present, Bionexo integrates 250 associated hospitals and 3,000 suppliers in Brazil and in Argentina.

Bionexo spotted e large European market, which feels the need to modernize purchase management as a way to reduce spending on healthcare and improve the quality of the service offered. According to Bionexo's executive Mauricio De Lazzari Barbosa, Bionexo's purchase platform for hospital assets and medications is an alternative for the sector.