News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797
St. Francis Medical Center selects Premier healthcare alliance Web-based infection tracking solution to increase patient safety, reduce costs
Premier’s SafetySurveillor® helps to prevent healthcare-associated infections and optimize antibiotic use
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 28, 2009) – The Premier healthcare alliance today announced that Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center of Midlothian, Va., selected Premier's SafetySurveillor® Web-based infection tracking and antimicrobial utilization tool. More than 270 hospitals use SafetySurveillor to help prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and optimize antibiotic use, thereby protecting patients more effectively while safely reducing hospital costs.
"We chose Premier for its strong infection prevention expertise and we believe this solution will help facilitate our goal to reduce HAIs," said Mark Gordon executive vice president and administrator of St. Francis Medical Center. "St. Francis has a strong commitment to quality improvement and cost reduction and we are excited to work with Premier."
According to Premier's Scott D. Pope, Pharm.D., SafetySurveillor national director, "SafetySurveillor is a technology infection preventionists have relied upon for nearly a decade to increase their efficiency, reduce infection rates and automate surveillance efforts. With application in both Infection Control and Pharmacy, it also allows pharmacists to obtain precise alerts and reports on suboptimal antimicrobial utilization to help improve outcomes, reducing length of stay and associated costs."
SafetySurveillor also helps hospitals meet state-mandated public reporting of certain HAIs, including screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile, some of the most common and harmful infections found in hospitals today. With the automated SafetySurveillor system, hospitals can detect HAIs, alert staff and facilitate timely intervention to reduce and prevent infections.
Premier is one of the HAI surveillance system software vendors participating in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project to develop a standards-based solution for transmission of HAI data from hospitals using existing commercial software systems to the agency's National Healthcare Safety Network.
SafetySurveillor is a part of Premier's SafetyConnect™ program, a comprehensive, integrated product and service offering aimed at addressing the pressing safety and infection-related challenges facing healthcare organizations today.
About Bon Secours St. Francis
Bon Secours St. Francis
Medical Center's services include all types of surgery, women's services,
24-hour on-site neonatology, 24-hour emergency care, cardiology, orthopedics,
oncology, urology, pediatric services, cardiac catheterization, MRI/CT and
diagnostics and nuclear medicine. Founded in 2005, St. Francis is the first new
hospital built to serve Richmond, Va., area residents south of the James River
in more than two decades.
About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
The Premier healthcare alliance is more
than 2,300 U.S. hospitals and 64,000-plus other healthcare sites working
together to improve healthcare quality and affordability. Owned by
not-for-profit hospitals, 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 works 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 offices
in San Diego, Philadelphia and Washington. Follow Premier on
Twitter.