Welcome to the first 2020 edition of The Delta Purchasing Alliance’s (“DPA”) newsletter. We hope you had a great holiday season.
In this issue of the newsletter, we have highlighted several items we hope will be of interest to you and your health centers. I wanted to take a moment, however, to update you on progress in two areas:
- First, I want to thank everyone who responded to our survey on translation services. We are making progress in our negotiations with various vendors, and I will keep you all posted as those discussions advance. The data you have provided gives us baseline information needed to negotiate strategically.
- Likewise, we very much appreciate all of you who provided dental usage data. The DPA has started initial discussions with two large dental distributors (Benco and Patterson), and we have engaged Henry Schein as well. These discussions are not as advanced as our negotiations with translation service providers, but we still have a goal of presenting your health centers with some great contracting options in 2020.
Finally, some of you have asked about the next DPA Purchasing Managers’ Meeting. For those of you new to the DPA, we have tried to hold an annual meeting for DPA member health centers to gather, network and share procurement/supply chain “best practices,” while also hearing from the DPA’s strategic partners like Vizient, Staples and McKesson. 2019 got away from us, but we are making plans to hold the next DPA Purchasing Managers’ Meeting in conjunction with the 2020 NACHC FOM/IT conference which is scheduled for October 19-21, 2020 in Las Vegas, NV. We are working with NACHC staff to coordinate the specific date and location for the DPA meeting, and you can all expect to hear from me just as soon as we nail down the details. But, for now, save the dates! I look forward to seeing everyone in Las Vegas!
The DPA is community health center-owned and operated. We share a mission with all of you—to enable our front line health care providers to provide top quality services to underserved populations by maximizing cost savings on the supplies, equipment and services those providers need to do their jobs. On behalf of the DPA and our health center board of directors, I want to thank all of you for being part of our Alliance.
Don Daniel
Executive Director
Community Health Best Practices, LLC