CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 8, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The University of Tennessee (UT) Medical Center has extended its partnership with Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) for an additional five years, and expanded its relationship to leverage performance improvement advisory services.
At the forefront of research, technology and treatments, UT Medical Center is East Tennessee's only academic medical center, Level I Trauma Center, dedicated Heart Hospital, and adult and pediatric transplant center. The 581-bed hospital also serves as a regional perinatal center. UT Medical Center has been a Premier alliance member for nearly 10 years, using both its performance and supply chain services to drive cost and quality efficiencies, and better outcomes and patient experiences.
UT Medical Center extended its agreement with Premier through December 2020 to continue to use Premier's group purchasing organization for cost reductions through the aggregation of data, purchasing and best practices. In addition, the academic medical center will continue to access the following industry-leading SaaS (software-as-a-service) quality, safety and operations analytics powered by Premier's performance improvement platform PremierConnect®.
- PremierConnect Quality analytics to drive quality cycle management, improve resource utilization and eliminate unjustified variation.
- PremierConnect Safety clinical surveillance analytics to monitor and protect patients from infections, harmful drug interactions and other adverse events.
- PremierConnect Operations labor and productivity benchmarking analytics for insights on labor performance across the continuum of care.
"Creating a clinically integrated UT system of care is central to our goal to establish a strong presence across the communities we serve," said Joseph R. Landsman, president and CEO, The University of Tennessee Medical Center. "In our partnership with Premier, we've worked to initiate these changes to become more coordinated, reduce costs and ultimately improve outcomes for the many lives we touch in and beyond our region. We are excited to continue working with Premier and its members to co-develop solutions to the challenges that providers, patients and families face each day."
PremierConnect enables the sharing of insights and integrated data from alliance members to drive effective and efficient clinical, financial and operational decisions. The platform rapidly aggregates, cleanses and manages data for actionable insights on care delivery and outcomes, all in one place.
In expanding its partnership, UT Medical Center will engage Premier advisory services to accelerate strategic performance improvements in continuum-wide care management, including post-acute care, as well as clinical integration and care quality optimization across its organization.
UT Medical Center will also continue to share data and best practices with other alliance health systems as a member of Premier's QUEST® quality improvement collaborative to set new standards in care delivery.
"UT Medical Center has been nationally recognized for excellence in patient care, medical education and biomedical research," said Susan DeVore, president and CEO, Premier. "Premier and its members have been able to benefit from their ground-breaking discoveries in improving care delivery. We look forward to continuing our work with UT Medical Center to further integrate care, advance continuum-wide care management strategies and drive better outcomes and healthier communities."
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
About The University of Tennessee Medical Center
The University of Tennessee Medical Center is part of University Health System, Inc. (UHS), a regional health system that comprises the UT Medical Center, UHS Ventures, Inc., and various partnerships and joint ventures with physicians and healthcare companies. UHS is affiliated with the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine and numerous regional hospitals and physician organizations. UHS supports and collaborates with the UT Graduate School of Medicine and other academic endeavors as part of its commitment to excellence in education and research. To learn more visit www.utmedicalcenter.org.
About Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,400 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 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.
Forward-looking statements
Matters discussed in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts, such as UT Medical Center's anticipated use of Premier's performance and supply chain services at expected levels, as discussed herein, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as "believes," "belief," "expects," "estimates," "intends," "anticipates" or "plans" to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier's beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier's control. More information on potential factors that could affect Premier's financial results is included from time to time in the "Forward Looking Statements," "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of Premier's periodic and current filings with the SEC and available on Premier's website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise that occur after that date.
CONTACT: Morgan Bridges-Guthrie, Premier, Inc.; 704.816.4152;
Morgan_Bridges@PremierInc.com