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Who is Allegheny Health Network
Allegheny Health Network (AHN), headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a non-profit, 14-hospital academic medical system. Operating as part of Highmark Health, AHN is driven by a mission to deliver a remarkable healthcare experience while empowering its 22,000+ team members to excel. Integrity, respect, and personal responsibility underpin every aspect of its operations.
The AHN Supply Chain team is committed to innovation, process transformation, and open communication in support of caregivers' needs. Their vision is straightforward: the right product, at the right time, at the right price, every time. In 2021, AHN launched an initiative to modernize its acute and non-acute supply chain, with five goals:
- Improve data accuracy and consistency
- Streamline requisitioning to control spend
- Reduce exceptions and increase fill rates
- Automate and optimize bill-only workflows in the OR
- Enhance catalog utilization across the network
Since launching its supply chain modernization initiative in 2021, AHN has eliminated $57M in supply chain discrepancies, reduced contract overpayments by 91%, and cut price deviation leakage from $5.7M down to under $250K. The sections below walk through how each phase of the initiative got them there.
It started with the data.
AHN's journey began with a foundational focus on data quality. The team cleansed and normalized their item master data, enriching it with attributes like GTIN, UNSPSC, and HCPCS codes. With a healthcare industry churn rate of over 30%, they implemented tools to ensure continuous, systematic updates to their materials management system. This emphasis on data integrity laid the groundwork for scalable supply chain improvements and enabled smarter automation across the organization.
“Clean data is the bedrock of a modern supply chain. By normalizing and attributing every item, we created the visibility needed to manage spend, reduce risk, and stay proactive, not reactive.”Pam PulitDirector, Supply Chain System & Master Data Management, Allegheny Health Network
Guardrails that empower the right purchasing decisions.
Next, AHN implemented robust controls over requisitioning at the facility, location, and user levels. By introducing guardrails and formulary-driven tools, the organization significantly reduced non-file and off-contract spend. This system-wide discipline created transparency, optimized spend, and empowered clinical users to make purchasing decisions aligned with strategic goals.
“With Genesis, we've built intelligent guardrails that empower our teams to make the right purchasing decisions, consistently. We now have real-time control over spend at every level, which helps us drive compliance without slowing down operations.”Scott MeiserVP Supply Chain Operations, Allegheny Health Network
The result was roughly a 20% increase in contract compliance post go-live, with percent-of-spend-contracted climbing steadily from about 80% before go-live to the mid-90s by mid-2024.
From discrepancy to exception, in one automation.
Automating the bill-only process was a critical step in reducing discrepancies, ensuring accurate billing, and relieving clinician burden. AHN implemented the Genesis implant management solution across its acute and non-acute care sites. The automation saved clinical staff an estimated 106 to 212 hours annually, time redirected toward patient care, and freed the procurement team to focus on resolving invoice discrepancies rather than routine bill-only processing. The Genesis solution brings hospitals, surgery centers, and manufacturers onto one secure, shared platform, creating full visibility into bill-only processes.
“When we went live, bill-only discrepancies accounted for roughly 20% of all invoice discrepancies. To date, there are only four documented bill-only invoice discrepancies for the entire year. This automation also benefits the procurement team, which is responsible for resolving invoice discrepancies. Although the time savings for the procurement team is harder to quantify, it has undeniably freed their focus for more critical tasks, ultimately supporting a better patient experience.”Maria SegadyClinical Supervisor of Procurement Operations, Allegheny Health Network
From pilot to platform, at scale.
AHN has gone all in on automation and AI, driving a 55% reduction in open orders and eliminating $57M in supply chain discrepancies. The increased visibility and control have strengthened clinical leadership's confidence in Supply Chain to the point where procedural area leaders have turned nearly all inventory management over to the Supply Chain Management team. AHN's leadership demonstrated a commitment to innovation by bringing 3,500 users live on the Genesis platform in a single day, setting the standard for best practices in technology-led implementation. Genesis has nearly 6,000 users live in the system today.
Results at a glance.
Catalog utilization held steady in the mid-70s from 2021 to 2023 (75%, 73%, and 74%) before climbing to 80% in 2024. Price parity, the annual improvement in pricing accuracy against benchmark, moved from a 7% gain in 2022 to 6% in 2023 and 1% in 2024, reflecting a catalog that was increasingly close to fair-market pricing with less room left to correct each year.
A few additional metrics from the initiative:
- Contract overpayment down 91%
- Price deviation leakage down from $5.7M to under $250K
- Contract spend monitoring up from 39% to 82%
- On-demand item building down 59%
- Average item description length up from 5.6 to 10.7 words
- Functional equivalency identification up from 0% to 70%
- FDA recall identification prior to ordering up from 0% to 100%
- Items with images up from 0% to over 80%
The Genesis Perspective
AHN's ability to strategically leverage the technology has been exemplary. Their tactical approach to defining processes and aligning technology with organizational goals made their vision a reality. AHN serves as a shining example of how healthcare systems can achieve operational excellence and elevate the patient experience through technology and innovation.
By addressing inefficiencies and fostering a culture of growth and innovation, AHN continues to set a high standard in supply chain automation. AHN's journey underscores the measurable impact of using intelligent data and automation to fuel smarter decisions, reduce administrative burden, and unlock new levels of operational performance. With Genesis as a partner, AHN is not only improving day-to-day efficiency but also building a more agile and resilient supply chain for the future, inspiring other health systems to reimagine their own supply chain strategies.
See your item master through clean eyes. Request a free Data Analysis — we measure non-file and non-contract spend, duplicates, missing HCPCS codes, contract overpayments, price parity, and FDA recalls. No commitment. Just the truth.
See your item master through clean eyes.
Request a free Data analysis. We measure non-file and non-contract spend, duplicates, missing HCPCS codes, contract overpayments, price parity, and FDA recalls. No commitment. Just the truth.
