Healthcare Matters

Aggregation, rationalization and commitment. I think I’ll call it my “ARC” program. Not bad. In fact, good enough for me to wonder if some major provider or GPO isn’t already using it. Just a week ago, we talked about Premier’s group buy program and how it delivers value with coordinated, volume-driven purchasing opportunities for participating members. The program creates room for smaller facilities like physician offices, ambulatory surgery centers and nursing homes, allowing them the benefits of aggregation, rationalization and commitment to the tune of $165 million in reported savings over the past two years.

Giving credit to yet another supply chain program offered by Premier that it calls “ASCEND” (Accelerated Supply Chain Endeavor), the GPO is announcing another 9 figure savings of $120 million that it has achieved for members over the last three years. Premier’s 321 ASCEND members, which represent more than $7 billion in supply chain purchasing volume and more than 54,000 hospital beds, identify savings by aggregating, monitoring and analyzing supply chain data. Doing so helps them act on performance improvement opportunities that support care quality such as simplified and consistent purchasing practices, efficient clinical utilization and specially negotiated contracts. When compared to a national sample of non-participants, ASCEND hospitals see decreases in their supply expenses by 8.7 percent more per CMI-adjusted discharge and 6.5 percent more in total operating cost.

• Where the rubber meets the road: After reviewing all eligible suppliers in a particular category, the ASCEND hospitals agree to standardize to one Premier-contracted supplier in that category. This decision is based on the supplier’s ability to meet the general and clinical product specifications set forth by ASCEND members, as well as overall pricing. Of note, TriHealth Inc. has saved nearly $5 million.

“These hospitals are integrating data and enhancing communications among their departments to drive high-value care through the growing scale of ASCEND’s membership,” said Premier President of supply chain services Durral Gilbert. “The volume-driven practices and knowledge sharing activities create a cost-effective purchasing environment so that they can focus on delivering excellent care.”

ASCEND members have seen significant savings in clinical, non-clinical, capital and purchased services products and services. Overall, 25 percent of members have identified more than $1 million each in savings opportunities. Additionally, more than $15 million in member savings has been identified for physician preference items, which account for 14 percent of ASCEND contracts. These savings include $4 million in drug-eluting coronary stents and more than $1 million in surgical mesh and DIR products. Overall, members benefit from 145 suppliers and 237 contracts.

Premier’s various data apps are used to identify opportunities. These apps include SupplyFocus®, the industry’s largest comparative database of supply chain cost information for acute care hospitals. All of Premier’s quality, safety, labor and supply chain apps are accessible in PremierConnect™, an integrated platform with the world’s largest virtual healthcare community.

Source: Premier

—Tom Finn