CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 20, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) has been named a 2014 World's Most Ethical Company® by the Ethisphere Institute for the seventh year in a row.
The Ethisphere Institute, an independent center of research promoting best practices in corporate ethics and governance, selected Premier for continuing to raise the bar on ethical leadership and corporate behavior.
"The entire community of World's Most Ethical Companies believes that customers, employees, investors and regulators place a high premium on trust and that ethics and good governance are key in earning it," said Ethisphere CEO, Timothy Erblich. "Premier joins an exclusive community committed to driving performance through leading business practices. We congratulate everyone at Premier for this extraordinary achievement."
Premier is one of only nine companies in the healthcare industry honored this year. Among them are two Premier member health systems, Baptist Health South Florida of Miami and University Hospitals of Cleveland.
"Receiving this award seven years in a row is a testament to our ongoing commitment to achieve the utmost standards of integrity in the industry," said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. "Our dedication to setting the highest possible ethical standards for ourselves allows us to responsibly support alliance members in improving community health."
Premier's group purchasing and corporate codes of conduct and practices are available on its public website. Each year, Premier complies with the Healthcare Group Purchasing Industry Initiative's annual questionnaire on progress to demonstrate accountability.
The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ framework. The framework was developed over years of effort to provide a means to assess an organization's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program, reputation, leadership and innovation, governance, corporate citizenship and responsibility and culture of ethics.
About Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 2,900 U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 other providers to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier's news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Foursquare and Premier's blog for more information about the company.
About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere® Institute is an independent center of research, best practices and thought leadership that promotes best practices in corporate ethics and governance and enables organizations to improve compliance, mitigate risk, and enhance relationships with employees, business partners, investors and the broad regulatory community. Ethisphere evaluates and benchmarks compliance and governance programs, honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies® recognition program and publishes Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs that include: Ethics Inside® Certification, Compliance Leader Verification™ and Anti-Corruption Program Verification™. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: www.ethisphere.com.