CHARLOTTE, NC – Premier healthcare alliance officials say hospitals and health systems participating in the alliance's Accelerated Supply Chain Endeavor (ASCEND) program are seeing benefits to the bottom line.

Premier officials say the ASCEND program is designed to help healthcare providers achieve and sustain rapid improvements in supply chain performance. It also helps hospitals control and reduce costs through simplified purchasing processes, appropriate clinical use and specially negotiated contracts.

More than 90 participants representing approximately $2.7 billion in supply chain purchasing volume and close to 24,000 hospital beds are collaborating to share best practices in supply chain efficiency as a part of the program, according to Premier. Since May, officials said, ASCEND members have reduced expenses in recently launched supply categories by up to 24 percent.

"ASCEND participants are achieving supply chain savings that directly impact their bottom lines," said Premier Purchasing Partners President Mike Alkire. "The program is allowing them to drive lower prices, reduce total cost of care without sacrificing quality and create metrics and benchmarks that ensure continuing progress. ASCEND members are eager to collaborate and share strategies to leverage volume and standardization."

According to Alkire, ASCEND offers analytical tools – including SpendAdvisor MySpend, Premier's spend management decision support tool – designed to help identify opportunities to reduce overall supply expenses. ASCEND members also have access to a comparative database and clinical focus tools such as SupplyFocus, SpineFocus, OrthopedicFocus and CardiacFocus.

Premier reports that healthcare providers are saving with industry suppliers, including Medline, Inc. of Mundelein, Ill., Berry Plastics of Evansville, Ind., Print Media of Miami and Clinical Innovations, LLC of Murray, Utah.

"ASCEND has helped us achieve immediate savings that are sustainable over time," said Maria T. Wirhouski, purchasing manager in materials management at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Goldsboro, N.C. "Collaborating among participants allows us to better communicate with other hospitals and share best practices that improve our patient care processes."

Print Media owner and CEO Robert Gonzalez said, "A collective and time-sensitive commitment to one supplier passes on savings in contract sales and marketing to ASCEND participants and reinforces the value of group purchasing to providers and suppliers alike. This is particularly true for the smaller supplier like Print Media that must spend more to promote high quality products and excellent customer service."

Based in San Diego, the Premier healthcare alliance is comprised of more than 2,200 U.S. hospitals and 63,000 other healthcare sites. According to Premier officials, it maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network.