St. Anthony's Medical Center Identifies Savings of $2.4 Million by Expanding Affiliation with Premier Healthcare Alliance

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--St. Anthony's Medical Center has identified nearly $2.4 million in savings opportunities as the result of expanding its relationship with the Premier healthcare alliance. The third-largest medical center in the St. Louis metropolitan area joined Premier after an extensive search that included Amerinet, HealthTrust, MedAssets and Provista.

St. Anthony’s has realized more than $775,000 in exact match savings for supplies it was buying through its former group purchasing organization and another $1.6 million in savings opportunities await implementation..

“We are very pleased with our decision to become a member of Premier,” said John McGuire, executive vice president of Corporate Finance at St. Anthony’s. “Our intent is to be all we can be with Premier, and so far it’s really panning out to be a great relationship.”

The savings St. Anthony’s has achieved will help the medical center enhance services it offers to the more than 715,000 residents in St. Louis and Jefferson counties in Missouri as well as several counties in southwest Illinois.

St. Anthony’s has used Premier’s OperationsAdvisor^TM labor management solution since 2006. Before becoming a Premier owner, St. Anthony’s had employed Premier Consulting Solutions in an engagement which helped the 130-year-old organization identify about $1.5 million in annual contract savings.

“Our commitment to safely reducing costs while increasing quality dovetails with St. Anthony’s ongoing commitment to quality,” said Premier Purchasing Partners President Mike Alkire. “Just as St. Anthony’s uses its ‘Quality Compass’ as a guide to its continuous improvement efforts, our alliance is dedicated to reliably delivering the most efficient, effective and caring hospital experience for each patient. We actively collect, analyze and share knowledge nationwide to improve the health of communities our members serve.”

McGuire said, “When we chose Premier over four other GPOs, we knew we were choosing a partner that could and would help us meet our immediate and future supply chain challenges. Since we started our transition, the transition team has been fantastic and I get more and more impressed with the Premier organization and opportunities every day.

“We chose Premier based on overall value – market basket comparisons, value-adds in addition to share back and support. We’re pleased with our decision and with the results we’ve seen so far,” he said.

McGuire expects savings will continue to grow. “SpendAdvisor (Premier’s spend management decision-support tool) is now installed. We’re just beginning to see opportunities there. My guess is savings opportunities will be even larger.”

About St. Anthony's Medical Center

For more than 130 years, the leaders, physicians and staff of St. Anthony's Medical Center have carried out Christ's healing ministry with the delivery of healthcare services to area residents. Today St. Anthony's is the third-largest medical center in the St. Louis metropolitan area and also serves families in Jefferson County, Mo., and St. Clair and Monroe counties in Illinois. In addition, St. Anthony’s operates four urgent care facilities – located in Arnold, Fenton, Crestwood and Lemay. St. Anthony's is a well-respected tertiary care facility, offering advanced medical treatment in a number of specialties, including cardiology, women’s services, oncology/cancer care, orthopedics, neurology and emergency medicine. St. Anthony’s is staffed by more than 4,000 employees, and served by more than 800 physicians, dentists and other medical professionals in private practice.

About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

Serving more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals and 53,000-plus other healthcare sites, the Premier healthcare alliance and its members are transforming healthcare together. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the leading healthcare purchasing networks and the nation's most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information. A subsidiary operates one of the nation's largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups. A world leader in helping healthcare providers deliver dramatic improvements in care, Premier is working with the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Washington. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.