Marquette General joins Premier purchasing system

Marquette General Health System has bought into a larger, national purchasing system that will lower the hospital system’s costs and, hopefully, improve care efficiency.

President and CEO Gary Muller announced MGHS has joined the Premier healthcare alliance, which consists of more than 2,500 hospitals and 76,000 other healthcare providers. Premier is the industry leader and country’s largest purchasing network, so this isn’t exactly “buy local,” but Muller says it’s the way to go for cost and efficiency.

Premier also offers waste-reducing and collaborative programs among member-owners, including maintaining the nation’s largest clinical, financial and operational database for healthcare systems.

“Premier’s business model is unique in that it is completely owned by its members and thus accountable to and fully aligned with their goals,” says Muller. “We believe this new partnership will help improve the value of the health services Marquette provides to our community and look forward to furthering our work with Premier.”

Typical members of one of the Premier collaboratives MGHS has joined, called ASCEND, see savings of $56 million over two years, through analyzing supply chains, making purchasing processes consistent, and group-negotiating contracts.

The other collaborative group is PACT, which focuses on coordinated care development to reduce readmissions, hospital-acquired conditions, and address professional practice evaluations.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Gary Muller, Marquette General Health System