How Premier accelerates patient access to new technology
Community hospitals unite through Premier to evaluate and negotiate reduced prices for medical products and technologies that can be used in providing safe, high-quality, cost-effective care. Through this shared approach, Premier accelerates access to beneficial innovations and reduces the cost of technology through group purchasing.
Working together to evaluate new technology: Hundreds of hospitals collaborate through Premier to evaluate the flood of new technology that reaches the market each year. In this way, they are able to make purchase decisions more rapidly, bringing breakthrough technology to many patients long before it would have reached them otherwise. For many community hospitals, working together is they only way to have the resources for this type of detailed technology review.
Driving innovation for patients: Clinicians and other experts from Premier’s member hospitals evaluate products and product claims through participation in contracting committees. These committees represent more than 1,500 hospitals and often urge suppliers to develop new products and features to benefit patients. In one recent example, two suppliers worked together at the urging of a Premier committee to change their products to eliminate tubing misconnections that endangered babies in intensive care.
Technology Breakthroughs program to speed new technology to market: Premier’s contracts include a Technology Breakthroughs clause that allows Premier to contract with additional firms at any time for products demonstrating significant superiority (in comparison to products under contract) along dimensions of clinical efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Through its Technology Breakthroughs program, Premier rapidly evaluates suppliers’ claims to determine if a new technology is truly a breakthrough deserving of rapid adoption by hospitals. Through this program, emerging and little-known products can reach hundreds of hospitals and thousands of patients much more rapidly.
Knowledge-sharing among hospitals: The best evaluators of new technology are the experts who work in our nation’s hospitals. Through conferences, collaborative groups and Web-enabled forums, Premier brings together thousands of clinicians and other healthcare experts to share knowledge peer to peer. Through its efforts, Premier helps to rapidly diffuse knowledge about new technology and innovative strategies for managing the flood of new products reaching the market each year.