News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Hunter Kome
Premier Inc.
704.733.5698
Premier wins top honor from North Carolina Awards for Excellence
Level 4 Leadership Award is first in state since 2001
GREENSBORO, NC (October 31, 2006) — The Premier Inc. healthcare alliance was awarded the top honor by the North Carolina Awards for Excellence (NCAfE) today in a ceremony here.
Premier earned the first Level 4 Leadership Award presented in North Carolina since oversight of the program was transferred to North Carolina State University in 2001.
“This is a tribute to our amazing organization and to all of our employees who passionately strive to continuously align and improve our processes and systems,” said Richard Norling, president and CEO of Premier Inc. “This award strengthens our determination to be a major influence in reshaping healthcare and to help Premier’s owners be the leading healthcare systems in their markets.”
The NCAfE program, which is based on the internationally recognized Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria, is the only state award for performance excellence in North Carolina. The four-level program helps organizations by assessing their performance using the Baldrige criteria as they progress toward performance excellence.
Organizations submit responses to the Baldrige criteria, which are assessed by a group of NCAfE examiners and verified at a site visit. Subsequently, a formal feedback report is provided by NCAfE that identifies the organization’s strengths, opportunities for improvement and item scoring.
“Premier is an outstanding example of a high performing organization in the state of North Carolina,” said NCAfE Program Director Wayne Tindle. “The organization exhibits ‘world class’ processes and serves as a role model for others to benchmark. Premier’s focus on values, customers and employees has guided the organization to performance excellence.”
Among its achievements, Premier has developed the nation’s largest purchasing network of not-for-profit hospitals, driving down healthcare costs by aggregating buying power; the largest database of hospital discharge information, enabling hospitals to save and improve lives by comparing best practices; and the largest policy-holder owned, healthcare professional liability insurance company. Premier has also been a national leader in building a hospital reimbursement system based on payment for quality healthcare and setting and following a high ethical standard for itself and its industry. Premier’s pay for performance initiative has saved hundreds of lives and reduced healthcare spending.
About NCAfE and IES
The North Carolina Awards for Excellence (NCAfE) process is a cooperative
industry, academic, and government initiative to improve organizational
competitiveness and to provide recognition for performance excellence. The
NCAfE process provides expert feedback to organizations based on their
accomplishments relative to the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance
Excellence. Examiners are trained to evaluate, comment upon, and score each
participant's criteria response and prepare feedback reports for
participants. The program was initially formed in 1989 as a foundation
through an executive order of the governor. It was transferred to the
Industrial Extension Service (IES) at North Carolina State University in
2001. The Industrial Extension Service is the statewide arm of NC State
University that partners with business and industry to transfer knowledge
and technology. Since 2000, IES services have generated more than half a
billion dollars of positive economic impact for North Carolina, as reported
by the organizations served. Created in 1955 within the NCSU College of
Engineering by an act of the General Assembly, IES is the oldest service of
its kind in the nation. For more information, go to
www.ies.ncsu.edu.
About Premier Inc.
With more than 1,700 hospitals and 42,000 other healthcare sites, Premier
Inc. is the largest healthcare alliance in the United States dedicated to
improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care.
Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C.
and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit
www.premierinc.com.
# # #