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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797

Premier healthcare alliance adds eight new hospital supply categories to help members achieve exceptional savings

Estimated $19.5 million supply spend across categories that include Materials Management, Nursing, Women's and Children's Services, Food Services and IT Services

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (July 8, 2009) – The Premier healthcare alliance today announced eight new hospital supply categories were added to help members achieve industry-leading savings. With an estimated member spend of $19.5 million, the categories include Materials Management, Nursing, Women's and Children's Services, Food Services and Information Technology (IT) Services.

"The addition of these new categories is in direct response to the needs of Premier members," said Premier Purchasing Partners President Mike Alkire. "These new categories offer Premier's more than 2,100 member hospitals access to a variety of categories at the lowest possible prices."

The new supply categories and suppliers are:

Food Services: Spices – Farmer Brothers Company of Torrance, Calif.; Precision Foods Inc. of Saint Louis; U.S. Foodservice of Columbia, Md.
IT Services: Revenue Cycle Solutions – Craneware Inc. of Orlando, Fla.
IT Services: Telecommunication Equipment-Distributors – Teldata Corporation (Black Box Network Services) of Nashville, Tenn.
Materials Management: Hyperbaric Chambers – Sechrist Industries Inc. of Anaheim, Calif.
Materials Management: Specialty Distribution – Suture and Endomechanicals Products – Suture Express Inc. of Lenexa, Kan.
Nursing: Airway Clearance Devices – Electromed Inc. of New Prague, Minn.; Hill-Rom Company Inc. of Batesville, Ind.; RespirTech of Saint Paul, Minn.; Thayer Medical Corporation of Tucson, Ariz.
Women's and Children’s Services: Breast Screening Equipment Non-Radiology – NeoMatrix of Irvine, Calif.
Women's and Children’s Services: Radio Frequency Bands Adult and Infant – Secure Care Products Inc. of Concord, N.H.; RF Technologies of Brookfield, Wis.

Additionally, Premier's online contract portfolio allows members to distinguish variations in pricing, supplies and vendors. Premier members can access Supply Chain Advisor, Premier's online automated contract management system, to capture immediate savings and improve processes for sustained results while increasing patient safety, improving quality and reducing hospital costs.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 80,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. https://premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.