CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MercyRockford Health System, a vertically-integrated regional health system with five hospitals and 561 W-2 employed physician partners in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, has partnered with Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a leading healthcare improvement company, for group purchasing and expense reduction services on a system-wide basis.
Formed in January 2015 through the merger of Mercy Health System and Rockford Health System, MercyRockford also operates a wholly-owned health insurance company, 80 outpatient clinics, and offers a host of complementary services including retail pharmacy, DME, hospice, and home health services. MercyRockford chose Premier to support its integration strategy through technology-enabled supply chain and performance improvement data management services. The new five-year agreement includes Premier’s group purchasing services and sourcing, contract management and supply chain analytics powered by Premier’s performance improvement platform PremierConnect®.
“We aligned our organizations to create a stronger regional system of care,” said Javon R. Bea, president and CEO of MercyRockford. “With Premier we see a value-driven and collaborative partnership that goes beyond purchasing, and is strategically aligned with our integration plan. We look forward to forming an advanced, clinically integrated supply chain that extends across all of our healthcare sites. The MercyRockford/Premier collaboration will enable us to fulfill our mission of providing high-quality, coordinated care to patients.”
MercyRockford will leverage Premier’s data-driven group purchasing services and best practices to lower supply chain costs and drive value across its organization. The health system will also access PremierConnect Supply Chain, which has been nationally recognized for its mature and intuitive cloud-based analytics. PremierConnect Supply Chain is a procure-to-pay analytics as a service suite that allows users to integrate, monitor, plan and manage supply chain and financial work streams, enabling smart enterprise-wide procurement decisions across hospitals and growing health systems.
“Today’s value-based care environment demands continuum-wide solutions for providers to truly understand cost drivers and opportunities for improvement,” said Michael J. Alkire, COO, Premier. “Premier is strategically aligned with MercyRockford Health System’s mission to forge a future that evolves with the needs of the patients they serve. We are thrilled to welcome MercyRockford to Premier’s alliance and become their partner in further advancing their transition to population health management.”
“While we considered a number of worthy organizations, Premier’s emphasis on building a collaborative relationship to deliver healthcare value was ultimately a critical factor in our decision to award them our business,” Bea said. “Implementation of the relationship has begun and we fully expect to leverage new supplier relationships as we build our state-of-the-art women’s and children’s hospital and medical campus, which will be located on Riverside Boulevard and I-90 in Rockford, Illinois.”
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
About MercyRockford Health System
MercyRockford Health System was formed in January 2015 through the merger of Mercy Health System and Rockford Health System. Today, MercyRockford Health System is a vertically integrated, not-for-profit multi-regional health system comprising five hospitals, a wholly-owned insurance company, more than 867 physicians (561 employed physicians), and 80 outpatient clinics and other service sites that provide care to residents in more 60 communities in 15 northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin counties. MercyRockford provides over 75 specialty and sub-specialty services, including neonatal and pediatric intensive care, perinatal care, neurosurgery, heart and vascular care, cancer care, plastic and reconstructive surgery, da Vinci robotic surgery and much more. www.mercyrockford.org.
About Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,600 U.S. hospitals and 120,000 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 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 MercyRockford Health System’s anticipated use of Premier’s supply chain and performance 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.
