Community Medical Centers— central California’s largest healthcare provider and private employer— has joined the Charlotte, N.C.-based Premier healthcare alliance. Community will collaborate with nearly half of the nation’s hospitals to improve the quality and cost of care.
A new owner of the alliance, Community will benefit from the scale of Premier’s group purchasing network, which generates more than $5 billion in savings each year. In fact, the health system saved $2 million initially upon joining Premier.
“Community is excited to partner with Premier to overcome the challenges of this reform environment and lead others in adapting to the changing nature of care delivery with innovative solutions,” Jack Chubb, CEO of Community Regional Medical Center, said in a statement.
The locally owned nonprofit system will integrate data across its nine network facilities including three acute-care hospitals, as well as a physician residency program in conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco. Community will use clinical and operational improvement intelligence in PremierConnect – healthcare’s largest integrated technology platform and online social community, according to Premier officials.
Comprising more than 2,800 acute-care hospitals and 93,000 non-acute care sites, Premier focuses the power of collaboration at a national scale. Alliance members make up the largest aggregation of hospital group purchasing, uniting providers to deliver the highest quality and most cost-effective care to patients.
Community will participate in Premier’s ASCEND (Accelerated Supply Chain Endeavor) program of more than 320 hospitals aggregating, monitoring and analyzing supply chain data and spend. In addition, Community Regional Medical Center has joined nearly 340 hospitals collaborating to accelerate the adoption of best practices industry-wide to enhance national care standards in the QUEST performance improvement collaborative.
