Premier Healthcare Alliance Experts to Lead Discussions on Healthcare Supply Chain, Pay-for-Performance, Patient Quality and Safety

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--Leaders from the Premier healthcare alliance will speak around the world in March, sharing insights regarding healthcare supply chain pricing and transparency, patient safety and quality, as well as pay-for-performance (P4P) based on Premier’s Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) project with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Premier Purchasing Partners President Mike Alkire will discuss supply chain pricing and transparency as a featured speaker at the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) Public Policy Conference and Business Exposition on March 4 in Washington, DC.

Dave Edwards, vice president of Supplier Relations and Business Development, will be a featured speaker at the 2008 Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) Educational Foundation Executive Conference March 4 in Miami.

Kathy Connolly, RN, managing principal of Premier Consulting Solutions, will discuss perinatal safety at Patient Safety in Obstetrics: A Collaborative Forum on Efforts Across the State on March 4 in Waltham, MA. Premier is working with its alliance hospitals on an initiative to eradicate birth-related injuries by collaborating through the alliance to improve processes and measure results.

Cynthia Perazzo, vice president of Corporate Development, will discuss pay-for-performance and the HQID project at the World Healthcare Congress Europe 2008 on March 11 in Berlin, Germany.

The HQID is the first national project of its kind, designed to determine if economic incentives to hospitals are effective at improving the quality of inpatient care. As part of the project, more than 250 hospitals submit clinical quality data to Premier through the Perspective™ data warehouse. CMS, which approved a three-year extension of the project in February, then uses the data to identify and reward top performers in five clinical areas.

NHS North West, England’s largest strategic health authority, is instituting the country’s first hospital-based pay-for-performance (P4P) effort, called “Advancing Quality,” using the HQID project as a guideline.

Premier recently launched “QUEST: High Performing Hospitals” based on many of the same principles used in the HQID project. The goal of QUEST is to improve patient safety and quality in the nation’s hospitals while safely reducing healthcare costs. QUEST participating hospitals report data to Premier on a set of clearly defined performance measures encompassing aspects of quality, efficiency, safety and patient satisfaction. Premier analyzes the data, facilitates sharing of best practices, and provides incentives for top-performing hospitals.

About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

Serving 1,700 U.S. hospitals and more than 49,000 other healthcare sites, the Premier healthcare alliance and its members are transforming healthcare together. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the leading healthcare purchasing networks and the nation's most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information. A subsidiary operates one of the nation's largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups. A world leader in helping healthcare providers deliver dramatic improvements in care, Premier is working with the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia, and Washington. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.