CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 3, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Catholic Health Partners (CHP), Ohio's largest health system, has received Premier, Inc.'s (Nasdaq:PINC) 2014 Richard A. Norling Premier Alliance Excellence Award for its leadership in accelerating innovation in care delivery.
The award, named in honor of Premier's CEO from 1997 to 2009, recognizes a Premier member that has most advanced the alliance's work to improve quality and reduce costs over the past year. CHP is the sole winner among Premier's alliance of 2,900 U.S. hospitals.
"Catholic Health Partners is honored to be recognized by Premier for our leadership in enhancing healthcare quality and affordability," said Michael D. Connelly, president and CEO of CHP, a Premier owner for nearly a decade. "It is through partnerships, like the one we have with Premier, that health systems are able to extend their capabilities and expertise in service to their communities, all while creating new models of care delivery that will benefit our entire nation."
CHP is the fourth largest employer in Ohio with more than 30,000 employees. The health system provides care for 5 million people across 23 hospitals and more than 250 care locations in Ohio and Kentucky. It has been nationally recognized consistently as one of the top providers in the U.S. for clinical performance and efficiency. This includes being ranked on the InformationWeek 500 for four years in a row as one of the nation's most innovative users of information technology.
"Catholic Health Partners is a driving force behind the success of the Premier alliance," said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. "Working alongside them has helped alliance members set new standards of performance, improve outcomes and lower costs. They're a true asset to the alliance, and we're proud to honor them with Premier's most prestigious award."
Examples of CHP's efforts to improve healthcare that have benefited the Premier alliance include:
- Working with alliance member physicians and clinicians to identify clinical utilization with high variance using quality improvement analytics. This project significantly decreased unnecessary care processes such as the overuse of blood transfusions, which saved CHP $9 million last year. CHP is also working to reduce and realign the amount of patient days that are spent in intensive care settings such as ICU and telemetry beds. Placing patients in the most appropriate setting earlier advances rehabilitation so that they can go home sooner.
- Co-developing integrated analytics as part of the Data Alliance Collaborative. CHP is currently working with other Premier members to build an all-cause predictive readmissions model that analyzes both EMR and administrative data to identify patients who are most likely to be readmitted before they are discharged. The Data Alliance Collaborative is a collection of healthcare providers who collaborate to develop and share knowledge and assets to accelerate the movement toward information-driven healthcare.
- Driving the creation, evolution and maturity of the Catholic Contracting Group (CCG). The CCG is a Premier buying group enabling members to leverage aggregation, commitment and compliance to produce industry-leading pricing on products and services. CHP has saved $130 million since 2006 through efforts to lower supply chain costs by working with CCG members and Premier.
- Participating and achieving top performance in QUEST®, a collaborative of high performing hospitals that are setting new standards of healthcare excellence.
- Sharing best practices with providers that are building accountable care capabilities as a member of the PACT™ Population Health Collaborative.
- Serving on Premier committees to lead alliance members in efforts to transform and improve healthcare. This includes Premier's Strategic Advisory Committee and Member Quality Improvement Committee, as well as various supply chain committees.
CHP accepted the award on January 28, 2014, during Premier's annual Governance Education Conference in Miami Beach, Fla. Previous award winners include Texas Health Resources (Arlington, Texas), Banner Health (Phoenix), and Bon Secours Health System Inc. (Marriottsville, Md.).
About Catholic Health Partners
Catholic Health Partners (CHP) is the largest health system in Ohio and one of the largest health systems in the United States, employing more than 31,000 in Ohio and Kentucky. With $6 billion in assets, CHP operates more than 250 health facilities, including 23 hospitals, eight senior living communities, five hospice programs, and eight home health agencies. Its hospitals operate as Mercy, Mercy Health, Mercy Health Partners, Humility of Mary Health Partners, Community Mercy Health Partners and St. Rita's Health Partners. In keeping with its mission, CHP provided $374.7 million in community benefit services in 2013. CHP's bonds are rated AA- by Standard & Poor's and Fitch, and A1 by Moody's. In four of the last six years, Truven (formerly Thomson Reuters) rated CHP among the nation's top health systems for clinical quality and efficiency. For more information, visit www.health-partners.org.
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.