Comparative Effectiveness Program Accepting Suppliers to Join Hospitals in Improving Healthcare Safety and Efficiency

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Premier healthcare alliance is accepting applications for the fourth wave of its QUEST® Comparative Effectiveness & Innovation Program (QCEIP), a voluntary program designed to evaluate products and clinical intervention in real-world settings.

“Testing these products and clinical interventions in hospitals is critical to ensuring care delivery is reliable and provided at the best possible cost.”

QCEIP suppliers work with Premier member hospitals to generate objective results that inform providers and patients about safe, cost-effective treatments for certain clinical conditions. The program also helps the healthcare community better understand patient outcomes associated with the use of certain technologies.

“Alliance providers and suppliers are working together to accelerate patient access to innovative, safe and efficient products and technologies,” said Bill Zeruld, vice president of Premier Research Services™. “Testing these products and clinical interventions in hospitals is critical to ensuring care delivery is reliable and provided at the best possible cost.”

Baxter International Inc., Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Lantheus Medical Imaging Inc., and Deltex Medical were all selected to participate in prior phases of QCEIP. Their results are under peer review and were selected to be presented this June at Premier’s annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition. All healthcare suppliers nationwide are eligible to join QCEIP, regardless of whether the company has a supply contract with Premier.

Suppliers can apply via this application form on or before the deadline of February 15, 2013. Applications are reviewed by a multidisciplinary team consisting of Premier hospital experts, Premier's Center for Evidence-Based Pharmacy Practice, and Premier Research Services. To learn more about the application and selection process, listen to this webcast.

QCEIP participants benefit from:

• Research that will correlate health outcomes to product performance using Premier's secondary data sources;
• Designing and testing new products and/or protocols within a pilot group of hospitals;
• An abstract for publication based on the results of the secondary data analysis; and
• After peer review, a variety of communications channels to inform the Premier alliance and broader healthcare community of the study results.

To test, validate and substantiate the concepts submitted by suppliers, QCEIP leverages Premier expertise and the nation's most comprehensive database of clinical, financial and outcomes intelligence with information from 1 in 4 U.S. hospital discharges, 2.5 million real-time clinical transactions daily and nearly $43 billion in annual purchasing data. Premier research has been featured in more than 300 peer-reviewed publications.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,700 U.S. hospitals and 90,000 other sites using the power of collaboration and technology to lead the transformation to coordinated, high-quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier operates a leading healthcare purchasing network with more than $4 billion in annual savings. Premier also maintains the nation's largest clinical, financial and outcomes database with information on 1 in 4 patient discharges. A world leader in delivering measurable improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. www.premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.