Healthcare meets e-commerce: buying healthcare equipment and supplies online promises to save money and time.

electronic commerce, or "e-commerce" is revolutionizing the way business is being conducted around the world, connecting vendors and purchasers worldwide with a few simple clicks of a computer mouse. With the launch of medibuy.com, Inc., buyers representing healthcare organizations, including long-term care, can now take advantage of the convenience of making equipment and supply purchases online.

Medibuy.com, like other Internet e-commerce services, can produce substantial cost savings, both on price and on cost of the purchasing process. For vendors, it offers the opportunity to reach potential customers that once might have been beyond their marketing capabilities or geographic boundaries. Small, independent nursing homes and large LTC chains alike can benefit from such services. Medibuy.com, with its 482 vendors (and more signing on all the time), offers buyers one convenient place to shop for all the goods and equipment their facilities need, without endless phone calls and extensive exchanges of paper.

Medibuy.com's Web site employs proprietary software that performs purchasing functions electronically. Registered users can submit a Request for Proposals (RFP) - a description of the equipment or supplies needed and preferred price - any time, around the clock. The RFP is in turn distributed electronically to any number of vendors worldwide. No special software is required for the facility's computer - just a basic Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.

Once the RFP has been distributed, vendors can respond with their proposals, complete with terms, conditions and any other special instructions. This enables buyers to shop for the best prices and the products best suited to their particular needs. The next step is simply to click an "accept proposal" icon to complete the purchasing process with a selected vendor (with the vendor then charged a minimal transaction fee).

For larger long-term care organizations, which might already have purchasing contracts with various vendors, medibuy.com provides an opportunity to make post-contract purchases at pre-negotiated prices on a confidential basis (i.e., using"firewalls").

Buyers can also purchase commodities and capital equipment not covered by contracts. Also, being able to compare prices from a wide range of vendors gives these organizations some additional contract-negotiating leverage. Small independents benefit from having access to a much broader base of vendors than was previously possible, which serves to level the purchasing playing field for them.

Any facility can register to use the medibuy.com Web site's services at no cost. Each customer is assigned an account coordinator, to ensure that the facility staff using the Web site are educated as to how it operates and how to use its tools and functions. Although this is less difficult than learning to use a new software application, it does require some training. For large-volume purchasers, for whom the electronic purchasing process might be more complex, medibuy.com will send a field support staff member to a facility to provide on-site training at no charge. Medibuy.com also provides telephone technical support.

Recently added to the company's services is an online auction, where both registered buyers and vendors can sell used durable medical equipment, and planned as this article went to press was an online catalog of goods and equipment for online ordering (for an overview of medibuy.com's services, see sidebar).

Medibuy.com serves only as the intermediary between buyers and sellers and is not affiliated with - nor does it endorse - any particular vendors. Many vendors are invited to sign on with medibuy.com upon the recommendation of their newly registered customers. Therefore, medibuy.com account coordinators urge buyers to accept only those proposals that come from companies they feel comfortable dealing with. The company's aim is to become a trusted site associated with reliable vendors.

Data on cost savings from e-commerce for the healthcare industry are just beginning to accumulate, but the company anticipates that these savings will be at least comparable to those seen in industries that have been longer online. Online auto parts purchasing, for example, has reportedly brought about a 15% across-the-board reduction in "hard dollar" costs (representing reduced prices alone, and not savings from the purchasing process).

As an indicator of the growth potential in this field, medibuy.com, within six months of its November 1998 launch, numbers almost 500 vendors and more than 700 buyers; 300 RFPs are active and 250 bids have been received, at an average value of $10,096.

As the loop between caregivers and suppliers tightens via this new business approach, caregivers will receive improved information upon which to base product selection, and will be exposed to more vendors and more products than ever before. Ultimately, this will help them to provide the best care at the most affordable prices.

A Visit to http://www.medibuy.com

Medibuy.com's Web site is well organized, easy to navigate and describes clearly and concisely just exactly what the company's services are.

Clicking on the "Buyers click here" icon on the opening page takes users to the "Buyer Procurement Center," which lists six categories of services. Some of these are still under development, with launches expected in midsummer, but most are available now:

eRFP - enables users to submit a Request for Proposals online, which medibuy.com forwards to vendors. This section also includes the "Proposal Management Center," the "eRFP Management Center" and a clickable link that allows users to print or export RFPs. Ongoing functional improvements will enable buyers to make purchases from an extensive online catalog.

eAuction - a recently launched feature that provides access to an online auction service for the buying and selling of used durable medical equipment, including equipment commonly used in long-term care facilities.

eAdministration - allows modification of buyers' profiles, procurement authorization levels, shipping addresses, et.

eSupport - currently includes FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), online help files and other contact information.

ePortal - also expected to be functional by midsummer; will provide new product information (written by unbiased third parties), news and legislation information, vendor profiles and customized information services for corporate customers.

I enjoyed my visit to medibuy.com and was pleased by its professional design, speed and lack of extraneous graphics and ads so common to consumer-oriented Web sites. The eAuction function could become to the healthcare industry what online auction services are to the consumer: a place where buyers and sellers, on an international scale, can come together - with one facility's "trash" becoming another facility's treasure. Although I put myself into the shoes of a potential registered buyer while viewing its pages and didn't venture into the vendor areas, judging by how well the buyer's areas are laid out and operate, I suspect the site is equally user-friendly for vendors.

Linda Zinn, Managing Editor, Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Management.

Don Chartrand is vice-president of operations and marketing for medibuy.com, Inc. For more information, call toll-free, (877)-287-8448; fax [phone]. To register free of charge, visit medibuy.com at http://www.medibuy.com.