University of Maryland Medical System a Finalist in the Gartner® Power of the Profession™ Supply Chain Awards 2025

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University of Maryland Medical System a Finalist in the Gartner® Power of the Profession™ Supply Chain Awards 2025

2025-01-08 00:43 Last Updated At：00:50

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 7, 2025--

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) has been selected as a finalist in the Gartner Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards 2025, in the Process or Technology Innovation of the Year category. UMMS is included for Transforming Bill-Only Product Management in Healthcare Supply Chain; the System’s Gallion is a digital technology cutting-edge solution designed to optimize supply chain efficiency that was developed by UMMS’ iHarbor Innovation Center.

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“We believe that being included as a finalist in the Gartner awards underscores the critical impact that UMMS has demonstrated so far in optimizing health care bill-only supply chain management and that it could have in the future on patient care,” said Warren D’Souza, PhD, MBA, the System’s Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer. “In our opinion, this recognition validates our focus on streamlining processes and empowering health systems with innovative, integrated solutions.”

Gallion’s innovative solution redefines the management of bill-only transactions by digitizing and standardizing workflows, enhancing accuracy, compliance, and efficiency. The platform seamlessly integrates with electronic health record (EHR) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, automating critical tasks such as consumption tracking, charges and contract compliance. Before Gallion’s implementation in 2021 automated these processes, UMMS relied on a manual labor-intensive paper-based process that had the potential for errors and inefficiencies. Data from the deployment of Gallion across UMMS’ 11 hospitals shows significant operational improvements; completion time has been reduced by 75% and the defect/error rate has lowered from 18% to just 3%.

“At UMMS, part of what we pride ourselves on is innovation and being at the forefront of transformative change in health care,” said Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA, the System’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe this recognition underscores Gallion’s impact as a pioneering solution in health care supply chain innovation.”

Gallion was developed in iHarbor, a wholly-owned subsidiary and the innovation center of UMMS. iHarbor is now bringing Gallion to the market, enabling other hospitals and health systems to realize similar benefits. The enterprise platform offers robust analytics, giving supply chain teams unparalleled insight into cost management, contract competitiveness and compliance, and clinical quality outcomes.

“We are extremely proud of the innovative and transformative solutions that the iHarbor Innovation Center is pioneering within the University of Maryland Medical System and bringing to the broader healthcare market,” said Guy Henggeler, Vice President, iHarbor Strategy and Operations.

“Gallion has fundamentally transformed our supply chain operations, enhancing collaboration among clinical staff, administrative personnel, and vendors,” added Patrick Vizzard, Vice President of Supply Chain Management for UMMS. “ We’ve seen tremendous gains in compliance, efficiency, and cost savings.”

Gartner Awards, Power of the Profession™ Supply Chain Awards

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and Gartner Power of the Profession is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. The identification of 2024 Gartner Power of the Profession™ Supply Chain Awards finalists or winner(s) is not an endorsement by Gartner of any vendor, product, or service, but is a recognition by industry peers for innovation excellence that inspires others.

About the University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high-quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban, and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.

About iHarbor

The iHarbor Innovation Center at the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) focuses on solving complex but common problems in health care. iHarbor is reimagining health care delivery, operations and administration — developing transformational products and solutions that dramatically improve health care outcomes, efficiency, quality and value. These solutions revolutionize treatment and bring superior experiences to patients, clinicians and administrators alike.

Thousands flee as wildfires burn out of control in and around Los Angeles and homes are destroyed

2025-01-08 21:02 Last Updated At：21:11

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wildfires tore across the Los Angeles area with devastating force Wednesday after setting off a desperate escape from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke.

The flames from a fire that broke out Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a parking lot. The residents — one as old as 102 — waited there in their bedclothes as the night sky glowed red from flames and embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and even construction vans arrived to take them to safety.

Another blaze that started hours earlier ripped through the city’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin' USA.” In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.

Sheriece Wallace was unaware there was a fire burning around her in that area until her sister called at the moment a helicopter made a water drop over her house.

“I was like, ‘it’s raining,’” Wallace said. “She’s like, ‘No, it’s not raining. Your neighborhood is on fire. You need to get out.’”

“As soon as I opened my door, it was like right there,” she said. “The first thing I did was looked at the trees to see where the wind was blowing. Because it hit me. It blew me back.” She was able to leave.

The traffic jam on Palisades Drive prevented emergency vehicles from getting through and a bulldozer was brought in to push the abandoned cars to the side and create a path. Video along the Pacific Coast Highway showed widespread destruction of homes and businesses along the famed roadway.

Pacific Palisades resident Kelsey Trainor said the only road in and out of her neighborhood was blocked. Ash fell all around them while fires burned on both sides of the road.

“We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road,” Trainor said. “People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming."

The fires at higher elevations were preventing utility crews from getting water to refill tanks, the Los Angeles Department of Wind and Power said in a statement Tuesday night.

A third wildfire started around 10:30 p.m. and quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a San Fernando Valley community that is the northernmost neighborhood in Los Angeles. The causes of all three fires were under investigation.

Flames were being pushed by Santa Ana winds topping 60 mph (97 kph) in some places Tuesday, increasing to 70 miles an hour (112 kph) by early Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service in Los Angeles. They could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills — including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.

The situation prompted the Los Angeles Fire Department to take the rare step of putting out a plea for off-duty firefighters to help. It was too windy for firefighting aircraft to fly, further hampering the fight. A high wind warning was in effect for the region through 6 p.m., the weather service said.

“This will likely be the most destructive windstorm seen (since a) 2011 windstorm that did extensive damage to Pasadena and nearby foothills of the San Gabriel Valley,” the weather service said in a red flag warning early Wednesday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X early Wednesday that California had deployed more than 1,400 firefighting personnel to combat the blazes. “Emergency officials, firefighters, and first responders are all hands on deck through the night to do everything possible to protect lives,” Newsom said.

The erratic weather caused President Joe Biden to cancel plans to travel to inland Riverside County, where he was to announce the establishment of two new national monuments in the state. He remained in Los Angeles, where smoke was visible from his hotel, and was briefed on the wildfires. The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a grant to help reimburse California for the firefighting cost.

Officials didn't give an estimate of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they said about 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat. Newsom visited the scene and said many homes had burned. He declared a state of emergency.

The fire burned down Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area surrounded by dense neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes. Flames jumped famous Sunset Boulevard and burned parts of the Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions including the 1976 horror movie “Carrie,” the 2003 remake of “Freaky Friday” and the TV series “Teen Wolf.”

By evening the flames had spread into neighboring Malibu and several people there were being treated for burn injuries and a firefighter had a serious head injury and was taken to a hospital, according to Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott.

By early Wednesday, the Eaton fire, which started around 6:30 p.m. the day before, had quickly burned 1.6 square miles (4 square kilometers), according to fire officials. The Hurst fire jumped to 500 acres (202 hectares) and the Palisades fire, which started around around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and sent up a dramatic plume of smoke visible across Los Angeles, had destroyed 4.5 square miles (11.6 square kilometers) according to Angeles National Forest. The fires were at 0% containment as of early Wednesday.

As of Wednesday morning, more than 200,000 people were without power in Los Angeles County, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us, due to the strong winds.

Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, where there’s been very little rain so far this season. Southern California hasn’t seen more than 0.1 inches (0.25 centimeters) of rain since early May.

The neighborhood, which borders Malibu about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of downtown LA, includes hillside streets of tightly packed homes along winding roads nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and stretches down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.

Long-time Palisades resident Will Adams said he immediately went to pick his two kids up from St. Matthews Parish School when he heard the fire was nearby. Meanwhile, he said embers flew into his wife's car as she tried to evacuate.

“She vacated her car and left it running,” Adams said. She and many other residents walked down toward the ocean until it was safe.

Adams said he had never witnessed anything like this in the 56 years he’s lived there. He watched as the sky turned brown and then black as homes started burning. He could hear loud popping and bangs “like small explosions,” which he said he believes were the transformers exploding.

“It is crazy, it’s everywhere, in all the nooks and crannies of the Palisades. One home’s safe, the other one’s up in flames,” Adams said.

Actor James Woods posted footage of flames burning through bushes and past palm trees on a hill near his home. The towering orange flames billowed among the landscaped yards between the homes.

Film studios canceled two movie premieres due to the fire and windy weather, and the Los Angeles Unified School District said it temporarily relocated students from three campuses in the Pacific Palisades area.

Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Janie Har in San Francisco, Hallie Golden in Seattle, video journalist Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles, Ethan Swope in Pasadena, Brian Melley in London, Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed to this report.