Premier Launches Best Practice Surgical Trays; Hospitals to Realize Significant Savings.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In an industry-leading move, the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance has launched a new group purchasing opportunity that could reduce the cost of high-volume surgical procedure trays by up to 20 percent or more.

Premier has introduced group purchasing agreements offering standardized "best practice trays," to members seeking an alternative to more expensive custom procedure trays. The first best practice trays to be introduced include cystoscope, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, laparotomy, C-section, general minor, angiography, ortho-upper extremity, ortho-total hip, ortho-total knee, and ortho-knee arthroscopy packs.

Premier Purchasing Partners, LP, the group purchasing unit of Premier, today announced the new agreements with Cardinal Health 200 Inc. of McGaw Park, Ill. and Medline Industries Inc. of Mundelein, Ill. The agreements are designed to lower surgical procedure costs by replacing custom procedure trays with best practice trays that standardize line items used in certain popular surgical packs.

Preliminary projections in several member hospitals indicate the savings for the best practice trays could be as high as 28 percent.

The new pricing options are effective October 15, 2006 through December 31, 2008. The first 10 best practice trays have predetermined components and no modifications are allowed. Other cost-saving trays will be introduced in the future.

"Hospitals routinely provide custom packs for surgeons who do the same procedure, a C-section, for instance. There are only slight variations in these trays, yet the hospital pays top dollar for the customization," said Michael Georgulis, Purchasing Partners' vice president of Sourcing. "This is an opportunity for Premier to help facilitate hospitals' efforts regarding standardization, which has been shown to lead to improved processes and lower costs. Improved quality and reduced costs - that's an unbeatable combination in healthcare."

Georgulis said a task force representing Premier owner systems and Premier clinical and contracting staff analyzed extensive usage and spend data on custom procedure trays to determine the packs and components that comprised the majority of Premier's contract spend.

The voluntary program was presented to members of regional groups and IDNs throughout the Premier membership, resulting in "keen interest by both small and large facilities," Georgulis said.

About Premier Inc.

With more than 1,700 hospitals and 42,000 other healthcare sites, Premier Inc. is the largest healthcare alliance in the United States dedicated to improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C. and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.