News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797

Premier healthcare alliance experts to present at national events in September

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 16, 2009) – Leaders from the Premier healthcare alliance will speak around the country in September, sharing insights on value-based purchasing, healthcare reform, GS1 traceability standards and how to achieve high-value healthcare to improve quality and safely reduce costs.

Susan DeVore, president and CEO, will participate in a panel discussion on paying for performance at the National Hospital Payment Reform Summit on September 17 in Washington. She will discuss Premier's journey to high-value healthcare, and how hospitals participating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) value-based purchasing project raised their overall quality by an average of 17.2 percent over the past four years. The HQID participants' delivery of more than 30 nationally standardized and widely accepted care measures to patients in five clinical areas saved the lives of an estimated 4,700 heart attack patients, according to a Premier analysis of mortality rates at those hospitals.

DeVore will also speak at the Scottsdale Institution Fall 2009 Forum about sustaining healthcare reform on September 24 in Fort Worth, Texas. DeVore's discussion concerns Premier's leadership role in healthcare reform and how the power of collaboration can help Premier and its members transform healthcare together.

Additionally, Randy Thomas, vice president, Integrated Product Management and Marketing, will also discuss healthcare reform at Pfeiffer University's Healthcare Forum in Misenheimer, N.C., on September 25. She will speak to Pfeiffer University students to help them better understand the healthcare reform plan and how Premier is working to integrate and transform healthcare through innovation.

On September 23, Joe Pleasant, FHIMSS, senior vice president and chief information officer, will discuss processes in healthcare building on the GS1 traceability system at the Health Level Seven, Inc. 23rd Annual Plenary and Working Group Meeting in Atlanta. In July 2008, Premier became the first group purchasing organization to endorse the use of GS1® supply chain standards.

Vice President and Medical Director of Premier Healthcare Informatics Dr. Richard Bankowitz will share best practices during a Corporate Research Group HQID webinar called "Surviving and Thriving with the CMS Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration" on September 28 from Noon to 1 p.m. ET. Dr. Bankowitz will explain the design of the HQID program and outline success strategies for improving quality measures and becoming a top performer.

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.