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CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797

Premier healthcare alliance to offer members mobile technology to improve obstetric safety, communication

Premier Purchasing Partners first group purchasing organization to feature innovative solution from AirStrip Technologies

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 14, 2009) – The Premier healthcare alliance has contracted with AirStrip Technologies™, L.P. to offer its 2,200 hospitals members a mobile healthcare information technology (HIT) solution to improve obstetrical (OB) care, patient safety and communication among healthcare providers.

Premier's Purchasing Partners division is the first group purchasing organization to offer AirStrip OB™, which provides obstetricians and nurses with real-time, remote access to fetal and maternal waveform data, such as fetal heart rate and maternal contractions. This information can be accessed on mobile devices using cell phone connections, such as a BlackBerry, iPhone and a variety of Windows Mobile smart phones. The solution also provides hospital staff with the latest nursing notes, vital signs, order results and a host of other critical data from the hospital labor and delivery unit.

Said Lynn Simpson, MD at the Cleveland Clinic, "In my opinion, this is an absolute must for obstetricians. If you can spend your whole day in labor and delivery, you may not need this program, but if you are like the rest of us, you cannot defend not having the ability to monitor fetal strips anywhere, anytime."

AirStrip OB is being used at more than 100 hospitals across the U.S., including Premier alliance members Cleveland Clinic and Texas Health Resources.

"A number of Premier alliance member hospitals are successfully using the technology already," said Mike Alkire, president of Premier Purchasing Partners. "This relationship with AirStrip will ensure that more healthcare providers will be able to experience the benefits the technology provides."

Key advantages that have driven the deployment of AirStrip OB include its ability to increase patient safety, reduce risks, improve communication among caregivers, generate return on investment, and improve the quality of life for obstetricians and nurses. Users of AirStrip OB are able to view OB patient data anywhere they have a cell phone connection and can therefore reactively respond to a nursing question or patient concern, as well as proactively "check in" on what is occurring in the labor and delivery unit.

"The core purpose of Premier is to improve the health of communities, and we see great alignment with our AirStrip Technologies remote healthcare surveillance solution to help deliver measurable improvements in care throughout the Premier membership," AirStrip cofounder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Cameron Powell said.

"AirStrip OB saves healthcare providers valuable time by reducing the amount of extra trips to and from the labor and delivery unit," said Kathy Connolly, RN, principal of Women's Services for Premier Consulting Solutions. "Constant patient data updates can improve the process and quality of care by helping to reduce communication errors, the number one cause of patient injury in a hospital."

About AirStrip Technologies, L.P.
Headquartered in San Antonio, AirStrip Technologies has designed and built a platform that securely delivers critical patient information, including waveform data, from hospital systems to a doctor or nurse’s smart phone. The platform, which is completely reusable, scalable and data independent, can be employed throughout the healthcare enterprise. It is one of the only systems able to deliver most types of healthcare data direct from hospital monitoring systems. The AirStrip platform, including the proprietary waveform engine, offers extraordinary value in any industry in which remote surveillance of monitoring systems is required. Visit www.airstriptech.com for more information.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 80,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. https://premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.