Premier in the news
Featured articles
Tackling tube misconnections; The Wall Street Journal;
6/27/07: With growing concern about a small but steady number of
tube misconnection cases each year, hospitals, government agencies and
safety organizations are scrambling for solutions. The most significant
initiative is being led by Premier Inc., the purchasing alliance of
1,500 hospitals around the country, which is educating staffers on how
to avoid misconnection errors and working with medical device makers to
redesign equipment so that the connectors linking IV lines and feeding
tubes aren't compatible with each other.
Full
story (.pdf)
Automated surveillance systems can significantly help lower
hospital-acquired infections; Drug Topics; 4/16/07: As many as
100,000 patients die every year from hospital-acquired infections (HAIs),
according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. It doesn't have to be
that way. Tools exist that can significantly lower HAI mortality and morbidity
rates and reduce an associated $6 billion in excess annual health costs. One
powerful tool is the use of automated surveillance systems designed to track
antibiotic overuse and underuse, as well as infection patterns. A recent survey
by the Charlotte, N.C.-based healthcare alliance Premier Inc. found that of
about 150 hospital-based infection control specialists, four out of five believe
such technology would lower HAI rates at their facility.
Full story (.pdf)
Cover story: Businessman of group purchasing: Premier's Mike Alkire believes
IDNs can improve both financially and clinically – with the right plan;
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting; 4/07 issue: In many ways,
Mike Alkire reflects the way group purchasing organizations are
evolving. His background is business- and information-systems oriented,
not hospital-purchasing- or materials-management-oriented. While keenly
aware of the need for low contract prices, he expresses his vision for
Premier in terms of operational efficiencies and greater shareholder
value. And he embraces the broader goal that Premier has set for itself
– helping its members improve their financial and clinical performance.
Full
story (.pdf, 2 MB)
Automating infection surveillance efforts; Materials Management in
Health Care; 4/07 issue: A recent survey of 150 infection control
specialists concluded that automated surveillance systems (computer or
Web-based programs that track patient infections) can protect patients from
hospital-acquired diseases. However, the same survey also found that only
about 13 percent of the respondents use the technology, according to
Premier, the GPO that sponsored the survey. Dan Peterson, M.D., Premier vice
president and medical director, discusses this apparent contradiction and
offers advice on how infection control departments can justify the hundreds
of thousands of dollars required for an automated surveillance system.
Full story
(.pdf, 2 MB)
Cover story: Inside the Premier/CMS pay-for-performance project;
Hospitals & Health Networks; 3/07 issue: Pay for performance is no
passing fad. It’s real and it’s here to stay. Private payers, employers and
the federal government are all devising ways to pay hospitals to improve
patient care. The 800-pound gorilla in payment policy, the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services, under congressional mandate, is devising a
plan to deploy pay for performance on a broad scale by fiscal 2009. Under
the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration, a joint effort between CMS and
Premier Inc., quality indicators for 260 participating hospitals rose by
11.8 percent over two years.
Full story (.pdf, 14 MB)
Bonus pay by Medicare lifts quality; The New York Times; 1/25/07:
Paying a hospital to do the right thing is a lot harder than it looks. The 266
hospitals participating in a Medicare experiment that pays them more to follow
medical recommendations have steadily improved the quality of patient care. The
latest results in the three-year experiment show that more heart attack patients
are getting aspirin when they arrive at the hospital, for example, and more
patients are getting vaccines to prevent pneumonia. Premier Inc. is managing the
project.
Full story (.pdf, 1.7 MB)
Hospitals will use IT to reduce birth injuries and deaths; InformationWeek; 5/15/08:
This article looks at the IT aspect of the Premier Perinatal Safety
Initiative, featuring insights from Kettering Health Care and Premier.
Full story
Area hospitals join effort to seek safer start for newborns; (Fort Worth, TX) Star-Telegram; 5/15/08:
A safety initiative being introduced at two North Texas hospitals could
eliminate preventable injuries and deaths among newborns nationwide.
Harris Methodist Fort Worth and Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas are the
only two hospitals in Texas to participate in an initiative designed to
change the way high-risk pregnancies are treated in the United States.
The 21-month Premier Perinatal Safety Initiative is designed to improve
safety, increase teamwork and enhance communication.
Full story
Hospital staffs train for safe delivery of babies; USA Today; 5/15/08:
Sixteen hospitals from the Premier healthcare alliance are leading a new
effort to reduce birth injuries, and have committed to following a set
of guidelines that are proven to reduce harm during the birthing
process. This article features insight from alliance members Aurora
Health Care and Texas Health Resources, along with Premier’s Susan
DeVore and Kathy Connolly.
Full story
Summa joins new perinatal initiative; Akron (OH) Beacon Journal; 5/15/08:
Premier alliance member Summa Health System is among 16 hospitals
nationwide trying to give birth to national standards that could make
labor and delivery safer for some newborns and their mothers. This
article features insights from Summa, along with Kettering Health
Network and Premier.
Full story
Data analysis generates savings at hospitals, practices; Charlotte Business Journal; 5/9/08:
This article, featuring Premier COO Susan DeVore and alliance member
Cleveland County HealthCare System, looks at how hospitals are cutting
costs without affecting patient care, using products such as Premier's
OperationsAdvisor.
Full story
Efforts growing to raise the bar on healthcare quality; Healthcare Finance News; 5/1/08:
This article by Premier President and CEO Rick Norling discusses a
recent Premier analysis of the Premier, CMS HQID project, and touches on
the importance of an appropriate value-based purchasing program.
Full
story
QUEST launches supplier improvement program; Digital Healthcare & Productivity; 4/22/08:
Premier recently kicked off the QUEST Supplier Innovation Program aimed
at testing and evaluating new technologies. The idea is to integrate
suppliers into its existing QUEST performance initiative. The program,
which launched on April 15, will be open to any interested suppliers.
Full story
The big picture; Journal of Healthcare Contracting; 4/08 issue:
This article looks at various aspects of patient safety and features
Premier’s Gina Pugliese, as well as Premier’s SafetySurveillor Web-based
tool used to detect and alert staff of healthcare-associated infections.
Full story
Why generic injectables are taking center stage; Drug Topics;
4/14/08: Generic injectable products are coming into the market. This
article details the flood of new entrants, featuring comments from Premier's
Fred Pane, senior director of Pharmacy Affairs.
Full story
Patients generally pleased with hospital care; American Medical
News; 4/21/08 issue: This article, featuring insight from Premier's
Blair Childs, looks at a recent study suggesting that patients are pleased
with the quality of care they receive in hospitals.
Full
story
WellPoint joins 'never' crusade; Modern Healthcare; 4/7/08:
This article, featuring Premier's Gina Pugliese, discusses insurer
WellPoint’s decision to stop paying for medical errors that are the most
preventable.
Full story (subscription required)
Coalition calls on FDA to act on medical-device ID scheme;
Government Health IT; 4/2/08: This article features Premier's Blair
Childs discussing the Food and Drug Administration's proposed rule and
timeline for setting up a mandatory unique identification system for medical
devices.
Full story
CMS Web site gives consumers more buying data; Healthcare Finance
News; 3/31/08:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Friday updated the
Hospital Compare Web site to give consumers more information about their
hospitals. "The Premier healthcare alliance commends CMS and HHS for
taking steps to make information, such as patient satisfaction, more
readily available to the public through its Hospital Compare consumer
Web site," said Blair Childs, Premier's senior vice president of public
affairs. "Premier (has) learned that a combination of publicly reported
information and financial incentives drive quality improvement. Premier
believes that patient satisfaction is a very important part of the
healthcare experience and supports CMS's actions to make this
information publicly available."
Full
story
Clinicians on board for supply chain redesign; Repertoire; 3/08
issue: This article discusses the role of clinicians in the supply chain
and features Chris Meyers Janda, vice president for supply chain at Fairview
Health Services, a Premier alliance member.
Full story
Weighing glove options: A balance of safety, comfort and costs;
Healthcare Purchasing News; 4/08 issue: This article looks at the
various options in selecting a proper surgical glove, featuring comments
from Premier Safety Institute Vice President Gina Pugliese.
Full
story
Healthcare: Getting what you pay for; Hospitals & Health Networks; 3/08
issue: "Solving our nation's health care conundrum can be as perplexing
as it is troubling. Our goal must be to improve quality while safely
reducing costs. What is inspiring and encouraging is that hospitals are
fixing health care from the inside by uniting to attain this goal. While
progress is being made, important reforms must be implemented to ensure this
progress continues in the right direction," writes Premier Chief Operating
Officer Susan DeVore in this editorial article.
Full story
Never land; Trustee Magazine; 3/08 issue:
This article, featuring Premier Safety Institute Vice President Gina Pugliese, looks at Medicare’s plan to
reduce payment to hospitals for certain events, as well as what hospitals are
doing to prepare for this ruling.
Full story
Progressive pilots; Materials Management in Health Care; 3/08
issue:
This Q&A, featuring Premier Senior Vice President and Chief Information
Officer Joe Pleasant, discusses the Global Data
Synchronization Network pilot, which was recently introduced to the
healthcare industry, suggesting that data synchronization within the healthcare
supply chain is possible.
Full story
Walla Walla hospital chosen for congressional recognition;
Tri-City (WA) Herald; 3/17/08:
St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla, WA, will be recognized by the
U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday for its 2007 achievements in
providing patients affordable rates, few complications and low mortality
rates. St. Mary was ranked among the top 1 percent of hospitals
nationwide for providing exceptional patient care by Premier Inc., one
of the largest health care alliances in the U.S.
Full story
Cover story: Never pay never again; Modern Healthcare; 3/10/08:
This article looks at what hospitals are doing, including participating
in Premier's QUEST initiative, to prepare for CMS' IPPS ruling in
October of 2008. Representatives from Texas health Resources, Summa
Health System, Kettering Medical Center and Premier are quoted.
Full story (login required)
Caution urged on CMS' value-based purchasing; Modern Healthcare; 3/10/08:
At a roundtable last week hosted by the Senate Finance Committee, major
healthcare provider groups asked the CMS to proceed with caution on its proposal
to reimburse hospitals based on quality of care, known as value-based
purchasing. “If the short-term focus is to try to reduce Medicare spending, as
opposed to a longer-term focus on improving quality and achieving cost
reductions,” value-based purchasing will lose credibility among providers, said
Richard Norling, president and chief executive officer of Premier.
Full story (login required)
Johns Hopkins nursing program wins national honor; NurseWeek; 3/10/08:
The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing birth companions program is one
of only six organizations nationally to receive the 16th annual Monroe E. Trout
Premier Cares Award. The award, which is sponsored by Premier Inc., honors
efforts by nonprofit organizations to improve access to health care for the
underserved.
Full story
MSHA installs extra 'eyes' in hospitals; Johnson City (TN) Press; 3/8/08:
Mountain States Health Alliance officials have enlisted the help of
Premier's SafetySurveillor to help fight hospitals infections and keep
track of operations in five of its hospitals.
Full story
Hospitals boost infection surveillance; Health Data Management; 3/7/08:
Mountain States Health Alliance is implementing Web-hosted infection
surveillance software in five of its 14 hospitals. The Johnson City, TN-based
delivery system is using the SafetySurveillor software from Premier Inc.
Full story
Spend analytics tool saves hospital $2 million;
Healthcare Finance News; 3/6/08:
Officials at Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, NC, report they were able to save $2
million on supplies last year by using Premier’s SpendAdvisor spending analytics
tool that allowed physicians to identify savings opportunities.
Full story
National Quality Forum ups performance ante; Modern Healthcare;
3/4/08: This article discusses the possible addition of performance
measures by the National Quality Forum and features comments from Premier's
Richard Bankowitz. If endorsed, the measures will then be considered
performance standards and used to measure and compare the quality of care
delivered at hospitals across the nation.
Full story (login required)
CMS, state mandates tap Web sites, IT systems to cut infections;
iHealthBeat; 2/21/08: Hospitals, as well as state and federal
initiatives, are targeting hospital-acquired infections with a common goal:
reducing errors to save patients' lives. The overarching goal of all of
these initiatives is to entirely eliminate preventable hospital-acquired
infections. And there is "evidence that it's achievable" based on a December
2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine on reducing
catheter-related bloodstream infections, according to Salah Qutaishat,
epidemiologist and director of Infection Prevention and Control for Premier.
Full story
How green are you? Healthcare providers adding eco-friendly buying to
their routine; Healthcare Purchasing News; 3/08 issue: This
article, featuring the Premier Safety Institute's Gina Pugliese and Premier
member Catholic Healthcare West, discusses how a growing spate of healthcare
organizations are getting serious about environmentally conscious
purchasing, in some cases stressing cultural and social responsibility in
the same breath as pricing, features and benefits.
Full story
Study shows EMR, quality connection still weak; Modern Healthcare;
2/26/08: The jury is still out on whether electronic medical records
directly improve quality in healthcare facilities, although EMRs might help
lead to shorter patient stays, according to research presented at the
Healthcare Information Management Systems Society annual meeting in Orlando,
Fla. In a partnership with HIMSS Analytics, Premier studied the correlation
between quality and efficiency metrics and EMR adoption rates in hospitals.
Full story (login required)
Clinical pharmacists advance into all areas of medical treatment; Drug Topics; 2/25/08:
This article looks at the role of hospital pharmacists as they continue
to advance into all areas of medical treatment and features Premier
members Homestead Hospital and Avera McKennan Hospital, as well as
Premier's Scott Pope.
Full story
GS1 Healthcare US helps push data standards for industry; Materials
Management in Health Care; 2/08 issue: The health care industry is
one of the last to adopt universal product standards. But the industry is
catching up in a hurry, according to long-time standards advocate, Joe
Pleasant, Premier's chief information officer. "Better late than never" may
well be the sentiment when a group of health care standards advocates
convenes for the first time in March.
Full story
Mercy Iowa City Hospital saves thousands of dollars by revamping
procedure packs; Materials Management in Health Care; 2/08 issue:
Procedure packs can help save staff time and improve a hospital’s bottom
line when they contain only necessary supplies. Rethinking the composition
of procedure packs can reveal large savings opportunities, as Mercy Iowa
City Hospital found after a yearlong review of supply use in its cardiac
catheterization laboratory. Mercy was one of 15 hospitals participating in
the most recent Collaborative Breakthrough Series sponsored by Premier.
Full story
Aurora finds savings in health quality project; The Business Journal of Milwaukee; 2/22/08:
Aurora Health Care's participation in the Premier, Medicare P4P
demonstration project helped the Milwaukee-based hospital system save
$3.5 million in treating certain medical conditions. "It has been really
transformative in terms of quality and safety for all of our patients,"
Dr. Nick Turkal said of Aurora's participation in the project, which
involved all 12 of Aurora's hospitals.
Full story
Bonus bucks in medicine; The San Diego Union-Tribune; 2/24/08:
This article examines the Premier, Medicare P4P demonstration project,
featuring project participant Palomar Medical Center. The article also
quotes Stephanie Alexander, who leads Premier's Healthcare Informatics
unit; and Evan Benjamin vice president of healthcare quality for Premier
member Baystate Health.
Full story
Hidden hazard: Hospitals target lurking latex; The Wall Street
Journal; 2/20/08: Amid mounting concern about allergic reactions,
many hospitals are trying to eliminate latex. However, patients still need
to be vigilant: the material is found in so many products, it's easy to miss
items that contain trace amounts. The push to cut out latex has accelerated
in the past year. The U.S. military is calling for latex-free products in a
number of new contracts for its medical facilities, and Premier Inc., a
large hospital purchasing cooperative, is issuing the group-purchasing
industry's most comprehensive latex-free catalog.
Full story
Latest American export: Pay for performance; Psychiatric News;
2/1/08: The pay-for-performance concept, which is making inroads
throughout the United States, has also made a leap "across the pond" to
England. First family practitioners there were affected. Now hospitals are
as well. The North West Strategic Health Authority, which is part of
England's National Health Service, has commissioned Premier to implement a
P4P demonstration project in hospitals and other health-care sites in
northwest England.
Full story
Hospital P4P improves care, lowers costs and saves lives, study shows;
Healthcare Finance News; 2/4/08: Premier Inc. has announced the
results of a study on Medicare hospital pay-for-performance, revealing
improved quality of care, lower costs and declining patient mortality rates.
Full
story
Medicare bonus program also pays off with knowledge; The
(Springfield, IL) State Journal Register; 2/3/08: This article looks
at Memorial Medical Center's efforts in the Premier, CMS HQID P4P project.
Full story
Baystate official notes keys to success; The (Springfield, MA)
Republican; 2/1/08:
Evan Benjamin, MD, FACP, chief quality officer at Baystate Medical
Center in Springfield, MA, told a national forum at a Premier event
yesterday that transparency at hospitals is one of the most important
factors in promoting safer and better hospital care.
Full story
Premier cites gains under CMS P4P initiative; Modern Healthcare;
2/1/08: Hospital costs and mortality rates are declining under a CMS
pay-for-performance project, according to an analysis released by the
Premier healthcare alliance. The Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration
project was launched by the alliance and the CMS in 2003 to find out if
economic incentives improve inpatient care at hospitals. Apparently, they
do.
Full story (login required)
Small incentives to hospitals could pay big quality dividends; The
Wall Street Journal health blog; 1/31/08: Could tying even tiny
amounts of hospitals’ reimbursement to clinical performance save 70,000
lives and $4.5 billion a year? That’s today’s bold projection from Premier
Inc., a hospital group that has been running Medicare’s “pay for
performance” pilot project. Premier says the
analysis it’s releasing today shows great results.
Full story
Beyond the financial rewards of pay-for-performance; HealthLeaders
Media; 1/21/08: This article looks at pay-for-performance, citing
the Premier 2006 Performance Pays study.
Full story
Organizations large and small strive for excellence; San Diego
Business Journal; 1/21/08: This article looks at why healthcare
organizations value the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. "There's a
whole focus on excellence, not trends," said Rick Norling, chief executive
officer and president of Premier Inc. "They're looking at best practices …
They find the benchmark. They're always pushing us to get better and
better." Premier received the award in 2006.
Full story
Supply chain tool creates healthy data for hospitals; Business
Intelligence Journal, Volume 12, Number 4; 1/08 issue: This article
takes an in-depth look at Premier's SpendAdvisor spend-management decision
making tool that is helping member hospitals simplify the spending contract
management process, resulting in saving millions of dollars.
Full story (.pdf)
Cover story: Banking on data analytics; Materials Management in
Health Care; 1/08 issue: This article, featuring Premier members
Summa (on the cover), GNYHA, Mississippi Baptist Health System and Child
Health Corporation of America, discusses how more materials managers are
turning to data analytics software to help them make the most of their
existing data and to aid them in creating a healthier bottom line.
Full story
Transforming healthcare; Healthcare Exec; 1/08 issue: This
article discusses Premier’s efforts to transform the healthcare system and
features an extensive interview with Premier COO Susan DeVore.
Full story
Teaming up; The Journal of Healthcare Contracting; 12/07 issue:
This article looks at the Colonial Regional Alliance and how it came to be
with guidance from Premier. "Premier is the glue that holds the organization
together," explains John Derr, director of materials management, Washington
County Health System.
Full
story
An industry left to its own devices?; Materials Management in
Health Care; 12/07 issue: Premier's Mike Alkire provides valuable
insight into what could come of orthopedic vendor-hospital relationships and
how changes could affect materials management.
Full story
Cover story: High-risk proposition; Modern Healthcare; 12/3/07:
This article discusses Medicare's plan for value-based purchasing and
features insights from Alegent Health and Hackensack University Medical
Center, as well as Premier's Blair Childs.
Full story (login required)
A call to action: Eliminating healthcare-associated infections;
Infection Control Today; 11/27/07: This article from Premier’s Dan
Peterson and Salah Qutaishat discusses what hospitals can do to eliminate
healthcare-associated infections.
Full story
Cover story: IT on infection detail; Healthcare IT News; 11/07
issue: This article discusses a recent survey by Premier regarding
healthcare-associated infections and what hospitals are doing to combat
them.
Full story
Medicare proposes hospital reimbursement overhaul; Modern
Healthcare and The Wall Street Journal; 11/27/07: On November 26,
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed to Congress a plan to
implement nationally Value Based Purchasing, also known as
pay-for-performance. Premier's Blair Childs, senior vice president of public
affairs, and Stacey Brown, vice president of communications and public
relations, were quoted in articles published in Modern Healthcare and The
Wall Street Journal.
Full story:
Modern Healthcare (login required),
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Cash incentives for Merseyside hospitals to improve care; Liverpool
Daily Post; 11/27/07: NHS North West in the United Kingdom will
today announce a scheme called ‘advancing quality’ which it hopes will lead
to higher standards of care across the NHS in the North West. The region’s
hospitals, primary care trusts and ambulance trust will receive extra cash
if they meet standards set by NHS North West. An American company, Premier
Inc., has been brought in to oversee the project.
Full story
Six Mass. hospitals lauded for quality, cost efficiency; The Boston
Globe; 11/26/07: Six Massachusetts hospitals have received the 2007
Select Practice National Quality awards from Premier | CareScience, a
nationwide association of not-for profit hospitals.
Full story
'Never' land; Hospitals & Health Networks magazine; 11/07
issue: This story focuses on transparency and the reduction of hospital
errors, featuring comments from the Premier Safety Institute's Gina Pugliese.
Full story
Premier launches expanded hospital quality initiative; Physician's
News Digest; 11/07 issue: This article features a Q&A session with
Premier Vice President and Medical Director Richard Bankowitz, MD, regarding
the Premier QUEST initiative.
Full story
Electronic surveillance systems aid ICPs in outbreak investigation;
Infection Control Today; 10/29/07: According to this article,
Premier’s SafetySurveillor is among several programs that can save valuable
time and remove uncertainty and inconsistency when it comes to tracking
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium difficile, and
other infections.
Full story
Does pay for performance pay?; HFMA; 10/07 issue: This article
discusses the Premier/CMS HQID project and the next steps with P4P.
Full story (.pdf) – Used with
permission of the Healthcare Financial Management Association's The Business
of Caring, www.hfma.org/boc
Premier launches comprehensive quality improvement project; Drug
Topics; 10/22/07: A new project called QUEST by the healthcare
alliance Premier Inc. is an aggressive attempt to develop performance
measures that improve quality and lower costs.
Full story
Bad bugs common; Pros to fight them scarce; The Wall Street Journal
health blog; 10/15/07: This Wall Street Journal health blog posting
highlights a recent Premier survey regarding healthcare associated
infections and features Premier client Virtua Health and Premier's Dan
Peterson, M.D. According to Premier's survey, in which nearly 800 hospitals
responded, almost half called "inadequate staffing" the biggest problem they
faced on the infection front.
Full story
QUEST: Toward a new healthcare paradigm; HealthLeaders Media;
9/27/07:
This bylined article from Premier President and CEO Rick Norling discusses
the keys to transforming the U.S. healthcare system to improve quality,
highlighting the Premier QUEST project.
Full story
Cover story: Shedding light on quality; Trustee Magazine; 9/07
issue: This article looks at today’s top healthcare quality initiatives, including
the Premier/CMS HQID project.
Full story
Solve a unique challenge; Materials Management in Health Care;
9/07 issue: The health care industry has always known there’s been a
need for unique device identification, but not until recent events has the
urgency to act been so great. In October 2006, Premier surveyed its members
to better understand how the industry tracks and records medical device
recalls – and the results were telling. More than 80 percent of health care
professionals believe that an industrywide UDI for medical devices would
enhance patient safety. Other studies prove that billions of dollars could
be saved.
Full story
Hospital food that won't make you sick; The Wall Street Journal;
9/19/07: This article features executives from Premier Foodservice
members Avera Heart Hospital and Baptist Health South Florida discussing
high quality, healthy hospital food offerings at their facilities.
Full story
Involving R.Ph.s helped these hospitals nab Premier award; Drug
Topics; 9/17/07: Pharmacist participation in performance improvement
was indispensable to recipients of the recent Premier Inc. 2007 Award for
Quality.
Full story
Cover story: Is I.T. the key to preventing hospital infections;
Health Data Management; 9/4/07: This article looks at Edgewood,
KY-based St. Elizabeth Medical Center and its successes using Premier’s
SafetySurveillor.
Full story
Premier unveils QUEST program; Healthcare Finance News;
9/1/07: The Premier healthcare alliance is looking for additional
supporters as it plans to launch a project to test the viability of a
program intended to increase patient safety and healthcare quality,
while rewarding top performers with extra payments.
Full
story
Achieving higher value in health care; Greater Charlotte Biz;
9/07 issue: This feature article focuses on Premier’s ability to be
a visionary company under the leadership of Chief Operating Officer
Susan DeVore.
Full
story
Scoring high; Health Executive; 9/07 issue: Any improvement
in clinical quality scores can save patient lives, but only the highest
scores bring financial rewards to hospitals in a pay-for-performance model.
That’s what East Alabama Medical Center and more than 260 other hospitals
that are participating in the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive
Demonstration project have discovered.
Full story
Optimizing quality and cost; Repertoire magazine; 8/07 issue:
Premier stands at the “nexus of quality and cost,” and it intends to use
data to help it stay there. As a national GPO, San Diego-based Premier
remains concerned with the price and quality of the products for which it
contracts. But the organization kept its focus on the quality of patient
care at this year’s Breakthroughs Conference in Orlando, FL.
Full story
Bonuses spur 3 Charlotte-area hospitals to improve; The Charlotte
Observer; 8/5/07: Three Charlotte-area hospitals have received
financial rewards the past two years for meeting nationally recognized
standards of care of heart disease, pneumonia, and knee and hip replacement
surgery. Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia, Stanly Regional Medical
Center in Albemarle and Cleveland Regional Medical Center in Shelby are
among 31 Carolinas hospitals – 250 U.S. hospitals total – participating in a pay-for-performance project sponsored by
Premier and CMS.
Full story
A report from the Perinatal Innovation Workgroup: Reducing harm to
infants during labor and delivery; Healthcare Technology Horizons,
supplement to Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology; 7/07 issue:
The work to date of the Perinatal Innovation Workgroup, a collaboration of
the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Ascension Health of St. Louis, and
Premier Inc. and its member hospitals, recommends perinatal care bundles be
used when deciding whether to induce labor electively and for managing labor
that is not progressing. The project was initiated to change obstetric
healthcare delivery so that fewer infants are harmed during the delivery
process and that costs from avoidable medical errors and malpractice claims
are reduced. In the article, Premier Consulting Solutions' Kathy Connolly,
RN, M.S. Ed, CPHRM, managing principal of OB and ED Services, with
assistance from Carol E. Davis-Smith, CCE, senior consultant, Premier
Consulting Solutions, examined how technology can be employed to enhance the
implementation of these all-or-nothing bundling initiatives. They looked at
consistent terminology, electronic medical records, simulation technology
and smart pumps.
Full story (.pdf)
– Reprinted with permission from the Association for the Advancement of
Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). This article was first published in
Healthcare Technology Horizons, a supplement to AAMI’s peer-reviewed
journal, Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology. To learn more about AAMI,
visit www.aami.org.
Paying for quality; Healthcare Finance; 7/07 issue: England's
Department of Health recently confirmed that the health economy overseen by
NHS North West would be piloting a pay-for-performance system based on the
Premier/CMS Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project. If successful,
the system could be rolled out across England.
Full story (.pdf)
Premier announces pay-for-performance initiative; Modern Healthcare; 7/26/07:
A new pay-for-performance project aims to improve patient safety and quality at
approximately 100 hospitals nationwide, Premier announced.
QUEST: High Performing Hospitals – which focuses on quality, efficiency,
safety, with transparency – is a three-year program in which participating
facilities will develop and share best practices in five areas: mortality ratio,
harm avoidance, appropriate care, efficiency and patient satisfaction. The
project, which is not part of a CMS demonstration project, builds on Premier’s
Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration and the Institute for Healthcare
Improvement’s 100,000 Lives and 5 Million Lives campaigns.
Full story (login required)
DeVore leads a bottom-up approach to improvement; Charlotte
Business Journal; 7/20/07: As the chief operating officer of
health-care company Premier Inc., Susan DeVore has implemented plans to
integrate all business units, rolled out efficiencies that improved the
bottom line and engaged employees at every level to help make improvements.
Full story (.pdf)
EPEAT products offer major environmental benefits, study finds;
GreenerComputing.com; 7/17/07: In January, President Bush signed an
executive order requiring all federal agencies to buy only Electronic
Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)-registered products in its
computer purchases. Scot Case, EPEAT's outreach and purchaser relations
manager, cited Premier as an example of a company that took EPEAT to heart
from the beginning. "They actually take the Hippocratic oath, which is
'First, do no harm to your patients' very seriously. They specify EPEAT
products because they see the connection with their patients' health."
Full
story
Cashing in on performance; Nurseweek magazine; 7/16/07: Nurses
play a key role in Medicare's trend toward awarding pay-for-performance
incentives in hospital settings, but their rewards are coming in the form of
improved patient care standards rather than a paycheck bonus. This article
features top-performing hospitals from the Premier/CMS HQID project,
including Avera Sacred Heart Hospital, St. Joseph's Medical
Center/Carondelet Health, Sisters of Charity, Aurora Health Care, and
Fairview Health System, as well as Premier project manager Diana Jackson.
Full story
The long run; Healthcare Informatics; 7/07 issue: As
the P4P race continues, providers integrate evidence-based measures with
data-gathering systems to cross the finish line. This article features
interviews with Premier and top hospitals participating in the
Premier/CMS P4P project.
Full story
Command performance; Modern Healthcare; 7/9/07: Slowly
turning up the heat for several years now, the CMS has been preparing
hospitals for the first course in a major transformation of the Medicare
reimbursement system called value-based purchasing, or
pay-for-performance. About 250 hospitals presently participating in the
Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration have an inkling of the
transformation at hand.
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Bug-eyed: Hospitals are using automated surveillance systems to
track infections and thwart a new generation of superbugs; Government
IT News; 7/16/07: A handful of Veterans Affairs Department
hospitals are installing automated disease surveillance systems to help
clinicians track HAIs and other infections. The infections result in
hefty financial costs for hospitals. One study of cases complicated by
central-line associated bloodstream infections found that hospitals pay
an average of $26,839 in unreimbursed fees because of extended
admissions and treatment regimens, said Dr. Dan Peterson, vice president
and medical director at Premier, an alliance of nonprofit hospitals that
manages a subscription-based disease-surveillance system.
Full story
Standard terminology allows alternative product comparison; supplies
with hazardous ingredients targeted; Materials Management in Health Care;
6/07 issue: Catholic Healthcare West, San Francisco, is committed to
finding safe alternatives for products containing latex, mercury, PVC and
DEPH, but until recently, identifying alternatives was “hit or miss,” says
Keith Callahan, vice president for supply chain management at this
41-hospital system . . . . The problem is being addressed by Premier, and
San Diego-based group purchasing organization, and Cardinal Health, Dublin,
Ohio, the distributor.
Full story (.pdf)
Fighting for survival; Journal of Healthcare Contracting, 6/07
issue: Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, MA, came close to closing
its doors. Now it’s looking at a surplus. Here’s how the hospital made a
turnaround.
Full story
An end to overtime; The Journal of Healthcare Contracting; 6/07 issue:
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges group purchasing organizations face
today is educating the healthcare industry that they are not, in fact, all
the same. The Journal of Healthcare Contracting interviewed six group
purchasing organizations – including Premier – to learn how each is attempting to differentiate
itself in today’s market.
Full story
Sweetening the pot; HealthLeaders; 6/07 issue: CMS'
decision to extend and expand the successful Hospital Quality Improvement
Demonstration project, which paid an average of $70,000 to hospitals last
year that met or exceeded quality standards, is being applauded by many
healthcare stakeholders. Measurements for the third year of the program will
be reported later this year, but starting in the fourth year, HQID will
begin testing new incentive payments and rolling out new quality measures.
Full story
Burr visit focuses on program; Charlotte Business Journal;
6/8/07: The chief executives of 17 Charlotte-region hospitals met this
week with U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina to discuss the $27
million saved in 2006 through Premier Inc.'s health-care alliance. Burr held
a question-and-answer session with the executives, and talk turned to the
state of health care in North Carolina, along with the importance of
nurturing the industry for the future.
Full story
New tools, old tricks usher in evolution of infection prevention and
control; Healthcare Purchasing News; 6/07 issue: An article in
the June 2007 issue of Healthcare Purchasing News about the prevention and
control of healthcare associated infections quotes Dan Peterson, MD, Mph, VP
and medical director at Premier. "It’s a poor use of human intelligence to
have infection control practitioners looking through hundreds of pages of
lab reports trying to figure out patterns," said Peterson, who previously
spent eight years at the CDC and was active in setting up the electronic
surveillance for reportable diseases. Peterson started Cereplex, which was
recently acquired by Premier.
Full
story
Following the leaders; Managed Care magazine; 5/07 issue:
Top pay-for-performance programs point to increased focus on hospital
incentives, efficiency measures, coordination, and standardization. This
article spotlights the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration
Project's success.
Full
story
Does where you live determine if you'll live?; USA Today;
5/23/07: Hospital death rates are among the best-kept secrets in
American medicine. That will begin to change in June, when the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to post the first broad
comparison of the death rates for heart attack and heart failure on its
website, Hospital Compare (hospitalcompare.hhs.gov). The effort also marks
the beginning of a broader transformation of medicine, one in which
hospitals and doctors will be routinely judged on their performance. The
agency has been conducting a pilot pay-for-performance study with the
Premier Inc. network of non-profit hospitals, which involves about 260
hospitals in 37 states.
Full story
CMS P4P research finds consistency to be key; FierceHealthcare;
5/8/07: How can hospitals benefit from the research being done by CMS on
pay for performance? In part, just by accepting that improving quality
results requires a high level of commitment, according to Richard Norling,
CEO of Premier, which runs the P4P pilot on CMS's behalf.
Full story
Premier honored for ethics in business; Charlotte Business
Journal; 4/26/07: Premier Inc. is among three Charlotte
companies named the 2007 recipients of the Charlotte Ethics in Business
Awards. The awards, sponsored by the Charlotte chapter of the Society of
Financial Services Professionals, were presented Thursday. The awards
are presented annually to honor companies that demonstrate a commitment
to ethical business practices in their operations, management
philosophies and responses to crises or challenges.
Full story
CMS pay-for-performance pilot engages R.Ph.s; Drug Topics;
4/16/07: The clinical success of an ongoing pay-for-performance (P4P)
pilot project by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires
extensive participation by health-system pharmacists. Launched in October
2003, the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID)
project involves more than 260 hospitals, which submit data to Premier for
validation and analysis.
Full story (.pdf)
Premier, CareScience deal's long-term potential; Modern Healthcare;
4/5/07: The acquisition last week by Premier of the CareScience clinical
data-mining unit of Quovadx will expand the reach and the breadth of
services for customers of both companies, but it will take several months
and maybe as much as a year before those customers can benefit from the
synergy, according to Stephanie Alexander, senior vice president for Premier
Healthcare Informatics, the data services and analysis division of the San
Diego-based group purchasing organization.
Full story
Commentary: Pay for performance movement gains evidence; Healthcare
Finance News; 4/1/07: "Regardless of how it’s funded, pay for
performance, or value-based purchasing, is coming. Congress has mandated
that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services develop a plan by late
2008 for hospital value-based purchasing. Recently, the Institute of
Medicine urged CMS to gradually phase in P4P nationwide as a way to
accelerate quality improvement. CMS is hard at work developing that plan,
and its Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project with the Premier
healthcare alliance will be one model they examine closely" writes Rick Norling, president and CEO of Premier; and Stephanie Alexander, senior vice
president of Premier Healthcare Informatics.
Full story
CMS extends hospital quality incentive demonstration; Healthcare
Finance News; 4/1/07: A program that provides financial incentives
to hospitals that meet quality of care standards has been financially
restructured and extended three years by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services. Premier Inc. ’s Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration,
under which top-performing hospitals have received cash rewards for quality
improvements, has been modified to make more participating hospitals
eligible for rewards.
Full story
Premier alliance chosen for national data project; Charlotte
Business Journal; 3/23/07: The bunker-like technology department of
Premier Inc.'s Charlotte office, which can quickly process and analyze
millions of patient records, will be kept busy by a federal program designed
to improve quality and outcomes at hospitals across the country. Premier was
recently tapped for another three-year run of a test program initiated by
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal administrator of
Medicare and Medicaid.
Full story
Premier receives Baldrige quality award; The San Diego Union-Tribune;
3/14/07: Vice President Dick Cheney presented the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award trophy yesterday to Premier Inc., a San Diego-based
health care group purchasing organization. It was one of three 2006 winners
of the federal government's most prestigious business honor. Premier Chief
Executive Officer Richard Norling accepted the award for the company during
a ceremony at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
Full story
U.S. laying footing for health care efficiencies; Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel; 3/3/07: Throughout the economy, the practices
are commonplace: Providing information on prices and quality. Using
information technology to become more efficient. Rewarding good
performance. In health care, they come close to being radical proposals.
Those seemingly simple ideas are the cornerstones of a nascent
initiative by the federal government to remake the $2 trillion health
care system. Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, is scheduled to visit Milwaukee on Wednesday to
promote that change and what is being called the "Value-Driven Health
Care Initiative." In Wisconsin, Aurora's hospitals are among the roughly 260
throughout the country participating in a CMS/Premier
pay-for-performance project.
Full story
CMS extends, restructures hospital quality incentive program;
Healthcare Finance News; 3/2/07: A program that provides financial
incentives to hospitals that meet quality of care standards has been
financially restructured and extended three years by the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services. Premier Inc.'s Hospital Quality Incentive
Demonstration, under which top-performing hospitals have received cash
rewards for quality improvements, has been modified to make more
participating hospitals eligible for rewards.
Full story
Premier leaders on Charlotte radio show; WBT-AM; 2/24/07: Premier Chief Operating Officer Susan DeVore and Stephanie Alexander, senior
vice president, Premier Healthcare Informatics; along with Jan Mathews,
director of clinical performance improvement at Gaston Memorial Hospital,
were featured on a Charlotte radio show – WBT 1110 AM's "Health Headlines"
with Stacey Simms. The discussion focused on Premier's pay-for-performance
project and Premier's success in helping hospitals safely reduce the cost of
care.
Full story (MP3 audio file)
Software identifies hospital infections; The Charlotte Observer; 2/14/07: Dr. Dan Peterson heard "Gee, that's nifty" a lot five years ago when he
pitched his computer software that helps hospitals track deadly illnesses
germinating in their buildings.
Full story (.pdf)
Pay for performance: Will it help nurses reap rewards in patient care?;
Nurse.com; 2/12/07: The Daughters of Charity system took part in a
three-year Medicare P4P demonstration project by San Diego-based Premier
Inc., a nonprofit healthcare alliance that evaluated the performances for 33
quality care measures for five conditions at 270 hospitals in 38 states.
Full story
I.T. tracks pay for performance; Health Data Management; 2/9/07: Patient
care at 260 hospitals participating in a pay-for-performance project is
improving and those facilities are receiving additional compensation as a
result, according to survey results from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services. CMS announced that it would award incentive payments of $8.7
million to 115 of the top-performing hospitals. Premier Inc., a San
Diego-based provider coalition and group purchasing organization, and CMS
are managing the P4P project at the 260 hospitals.
Full story
Post enhancements: Is your PACS all it can be?; Medical Imaging
magazine; 2/07 issue: "It should be no surprise that PACS, like any
other new technology, requires constant fine-tuning. The good news is that
it continues to get better and better. Focus on opportunities, take
advantage of technology changes and new levels of integration to bury all
those workarounds, and look strategically toward the future," writes Vicki
Peterson, director of the PACS consulting program for Premier Consulting
Solutions.
Full story
Hospitals get bonuses for quality of care; Government Health IT; 1/29/07: A demonstration project that Medicare officials describe as groundbreaking
has improved the quality of patient care at participating hospitals, and
according to hospital officials, saved the lives of 1,284 heart attack
patients.
Full story
Hackensack hospital keeps its top rating in U.S. program; AP/The Philadelphia
Inquirer; 1/27/07: For the second year in a row, Hackensack University
Medical Center has emerged as the top hospital in a nationwide Medicare
program meant to demonstrate whether financial incentives can improve
patient care.
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Rise in heart failure means increased prices for CRMs; Materials
Management in Health Care; 1/07: According to the American Heart
Association, heart failure is a major unresolved public health concern with more
than 5 million individuals in the United States affected by this condition.
Full story
Making the grade with pay for performance: 7 lessons from best-performing
hospitals; HFM Magazine; 12/06: "There’s a potential for a billion dollars in savings to Medicare. I mean, it's huge," says Stephanie Alexander, senior vice president and general manager for Premier, a not-for-profit hospital alliance that managed the demonstration project.
Full story
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The move up; Repertoire; 12/06 issue: "Somebody’s got to
mind the store," is how David Christensen describes his job as executive
director of Lincoln, Neb.-based Alegent NPG HealthLink LLC ("HealthLink").
That store and its services have gotten bigger in the last few months, as
the organization has made the transition from regional group purchasing
organization to hospital alliance and shareholder in Premier Inc. It
comprises 47 hospitals and roughly 350 non-acute-care locations, with an
annual purchasing volume of $200 million.
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The fundamentals of robotic surgical systems, Biomedical
Instrumentation & Technology, 11-12/06 issue: Over the next
decade, the number of minimally invasive surgical procedures performed
will continue to rise while the number of invasive procedures that have a
noninvasive option will decline. This trend will have a major impact on the
number of robotic surgical systems in use. (Reprinted with permission from
Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal by the
Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. Visit
www.aami.org to learn more about AAMI or
to view BI&T’s current issue.)
Full story (.pdf)
San Diego firm honored for its role with Medicare; The San Diego Union-Tribune; 11/22/06: A San Diego company that helped develop a Medicare program that rewards hospitals for providing better service has won the 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Premier was one of three companies to receive the prize, announced yesterday by President Bush and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Full story
WMHS part of Premier alliance to cut operating expenses; Cumberland
(MD) Times-News; 11/19/06: The Western Maryland Health
System has joined six other not-for-profit hospitals in Maryland and to form
an alliance aimed at reducing operating expenses through joint participation
in the national and regional group purchasing contracts of Premier Inc. and
shared service initiatives.
Full story
Catching the P4P wave; Healthcare Informatics; 11/06 issue: As a participant in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services/Premier Inc., P4P Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project, Perez's health system scored in the top decile in all areas among the participating hospital organizations.
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Premier acquires infection I.T. vendor; Health Data Management; 10/23/06: Premier Inc. has acquired Germantown, Md.-based Cereplex Inc. to assist hospitals to reduce infection and track potential overuse of antibiotics.
Full story
Hallmark of quality care: Efficiency; USA Today; 10/20/06: According to an analysis by Premier Inc., a private company collaborating with Medicare, hospitals nationwide could save up to $1.3 billion if they met even three out of four recommended standards for patients with these five conditions.
Full story
The patient safety movement finally is saving lives and raising hopes; Medscape; 10/20/06: Premier, Inc., an alliance of nonprofit hospitals and healthcare systems, announced that its 3-year demonstration project with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is resulting in better care at lower costs. Approximately 260 hospitals are participating in this pay-for-performance project.
Full story
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Collaboration cuts costs; Healthcare Finance News; 10/01/06:
A small investment in Premier’s Supply Chain Collaborative Breakthrough
Series is paying big dividends for the three-hospital Genesis Health System
in Illinois and Iowa.
Full story
Premier series saved $47 million; Materials Management in Health Care;
10/06: Hospitals and health systems that participated in Premier’s fifth
annual Supply Chain Collaborative Breakthrough Series reported savings of
$47 million – 75 percent over their goal of $27.3 million.
Full story
Purchasing alliance feels the power; Buffalo-area hospitals band
together to save; Materials Management in Health Care; 10/06: An
interview with Kevin Connor, Executive Director and CEO of the Western New
York Purchasing Alliance, LLC, through which competing hospitals in western
New York state came together three years ago – with Premier’s help – to
leverage better pricing and shared services.
Full story
Back-to-basics measures save lives: Quality care doesn't mean more expensive care;
Materials Management in Health Care; 9/14/06: An interview with Donald Berwick, president and CEO at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, regarding the Premier/CMS Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration pay-for-performance project.
Full story
Paying to get it right; Chicago Tribune via Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel; 9/5/06: Last year, officials at Premier Inc., a nonprofit hospital alliance, announced that a Medicare-sponsored pilot program to improve care had saved the lives of about 235 heart attack patients at some 260 hospitals across the country in its first year. The hospitals took many steps to improve care, some as simple as giving more heart-attack patients aspirin when they were first admitted.
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Study of Medicare patients finds many lives saved by hospital quality measures; SeniorJournal.com; 9/2/06: Wider adoption of quality measures used in a groundbreaking Medicare pay-for-performance demonstration project could save thousands of lives and reduce hospitals costs, according to an analysis released yesterday by the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance.
Full story
Program aims to improve hospitals; (Fort Worth, TX) Star-Telegram; 9/1/06: If U.S. hospitals more widely adopted some of the federal Medicare program's pay-for-performance goals, they could prevent almost 5,700 deaths and save as much as $1.35 billion a year, according to a study released Thursday by Premier Inc.
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Demonstration project claims $1 billion in potential savings; Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement;
9/06: New data from Premier Inc.'s pay-for-performance demonstration project
with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicate that improving
the care of pneumonia and heart bypass patients alone can save as much as $1
billion a year, as well as thousands of lives.
Full story
Pay for performance could save lives, money: eWeek, 8/31/06: Premier, a health alliance of more than 200 nonprofit hospitals and health care systems, recently released results from its pay-for-performance demonstration project with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Full story
DRG-based contracting: A theoretical model for low margin service
lines; Healthcare Purchasing News; 8/06 issue: With regard to
orthopedic service lines, we know that for most hospitals the cost of
orthopedic implant supplies have to be in the region of 35% of the DRG
payment in order for that service line to be a profitable business venture.
What about other service lines where the cost of a few supplies accounts for
a very high percentage of the DRG? Dawn Terry RN, BSN, MBA, Senior Clinical
Associate, Cardiovascular Services at Premier Inc., explains that profit
margins continue to decline despite product cost savings through
negotiations and utilization.
Full story
Study correlates high-quality care and savings, Healthcare IT News; 6/22/06: Early results from a joint government-private sector pay-for-performance project suggest that improving patient care can save money.
Full story
Report: Pay-for-performance has the potential to improve care, Health Imaging News,
4/06: Pay-for-performance has the potential to improve the quality of care given to patients – and in some instances save lives
– according to a new white paper published by the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance.
Full story
Medicare says bonuses can improve hospital care; The New York Times; 11/15/05: Linking hospital payments to the quality of patient care can significantly improve the level of care, Medicare officials said yesterday in announcing the first results of the government's experimental performance-based bonus system for hospitals.
Full story
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