Data-Driven Physician Dialogue Leads to Big Savings for St. Joseph/Candler Orthopedics, Neurosurgery Programs.

Savannah System's Work with Premier's Sixth Annual Breakthrough Collaborative Reduces Costs by More Than $400,000 in Just 8 Months

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- By participating in the Premier healthcare alliance's Sixth Annual Collaborative Breakthroughs Series (CBTS), Savannah, Ga.-based St. Joseph/Candler, a two-hospital system, reduced costs in its orthopedic and neurosurgery programs by $400,000 in just eight months. The system also accelerated improvement efforts and enhanced relationships with its physicians, all of which benefits the patients and communities it serves.

In total, 32 teams representing 15 hospitals and healthcare systems participating in the Premier series implemented changes resulting in cumulative, validated savings of more than $19 million - $6.3 million more than the series' goal of $12.7 million. Since Premier launched the CBTS six years ago, more than 230 teams have taken part, capturing cumulative savings of more than $170 million.

By the end of 2005, St. Joseph/Candler had very successful orthopedic and neurosurgery programs by most measures. Both were positive contributors to the organization's revenue, and volume was steady.

However, the two service lines still presented some specific challenges to the organization's cost savings efforts, especially in the area of implantables and related ancillary products. The hospitals' purchasing and surgical services teams initiated some individual saving projects - especially related to spine implants - but felt that they could do much more.

"We were really looking for a way to take our savings to the next level," said Joe Loya, Director, Purchasing and Collaborative Breakthrough team leader. "We had several improvement efforts underway in the orthopedics area, but we were looking for a way to identify savings more globally and to really accelerate our results."

St. Joseph's/Candler, the largest healthcare system in southeast Georgia, is made up of St. Joseph's and Candler hospitals, two of the oldest continuously operating hospitals in the U.S. The system's 636 licensed acute care beds serve Southeast Georgia and South Carolina's Low Country.

To maintain its position as a regional leader, St. Joseph's/Candler is constantly searching for performance improvement opportunities to help the organization meet its mission of setting the standards of excellence in the delivery of healthcare in its service area. An initial team success was development of a data-driven technology evaluation process.

Before joining the Premier CBTS, the team had been looking for better ways to mine the available data to be able to understand the costs related to new technology adoption and to identify savings opportunities related to physician preference items.

"The CBTS tools and networking opportunities helped refine and improve the system we were working on," said Chris Clinton, Surgical Services Business Manager. "The resources available and the collaborative process really helped us identify the pluses and minuses of our system and gave us great ideas on how to maximize it to best meet the needs of our organization."

In addition to the global process improvement efforts, the team also successfully implemented specific savings projects which captured more than $400,000 in annual savings.

The CBTS is based on a methodology for collaborative improvement created by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) that allows participants to identify and implement improvements in supply chain management which result in significant supply cost reductions. Teams set goals and report progress monthly. Experiences are shared through monthly data exchanges, e-mails, conference calls and face-to-face meetings.

Throughout the project, the St. Joseph's/Candler team members felt strongly that the CBTS helped them accelerate and refine their improvement efforts. According to Brad Trower, Clinical Initiatives Director of Orthopedics, "The benefit of the CBTS was our ability to exchange ideas and brainstorm with our peers. We really wanted to gain insights about what others were doing with regard to hip, knee, and spine implants. It was really helpful to affirm our current best practices, as well as find new ways to get around some of those obstacles that were impeding our cost containments goals."

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

Serving 1,700 hospitals and more than 48,500 other healthcare sites, Premier is the largest healthcare alliance in the United States dedicated to improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the nation's largest healthcare purchasing networks, the most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information and one of the largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups in healthcare. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Washington. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.

About St. Joseph's/Candler

St. Joseph's/Candler of Savannah, Ga., is composed of St. Joseph's Hospital and Candler Hospital, two of the oldest continuously operating hospitals in the United States. It is the largest healthcare system in southeast Georgia and the only faith based facility in Savannah. Through groundbreaking innovations in such services as cardiology, oncology, digestive diseases, neurosensory disorders, orthopedics, women's and children's services and diabetes, St. Joseph's/Candler sets the standards for healthcare in the region. For more information, visit www.sjchs.org.