News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797
St. Francis Medical Center selects Premier healthcare alliance Web-based infection tracking solution to increase patient safety, reduce costs
Premier’s SafetySurveillor® helps to prevent healthcare-associated infections and optimize antibiotic use
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 28, 2009) – The Premier healthcare alliance today announced that Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center of Midlothian, Va., selected Premier's SafetySurveillor® Web-based infection tracking and antimicrobial utilization tool. More than 270 hospitals use SafetySurveillor to help prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and optimize antibiotic use, thereby protecting patients more effectively while safely reducing hospital costs.
"We chose Premier for its strong infection prevention expertise and we believe this solution will help facilitate our goal to reduce HAIs," said Mark Gordon executive vice president and administrator of St. Francis Medical Center. "St. Francis has a strong commitment to quality improvement and cost reduction and we are excited to work with Premier."
According to Premier's Scott D. Pope, Pharm.D., SafetySurveillor national director, "SafetySurveillor is a technology infection preventionists have relied upon for nearly a decade to increase their efficiency, reduce infection rates and automate surveillance efforts. With application in both Infection Control and Pharmacy, it also allows pharmacists to obtain precise alerts and reports on suboptimal antimicrobial utilization to help improve outcomes, reducing length of stay and associated costs."
SafetySurveillor also helps hospitals meet state-mandated public reporting of certain HAIs, including screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile, some of the most common and harmful infections found in hospitals today. With the automated SafetySurveillor system, hospitals can detect HAIs, alert staff and facilitate timely intervention to reduce and prevent infections.
Premier is one of the HAI surveillance system software vendors participating in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project to develop a standards-based solution for transmission of HAI data from hospitals using existing commercial software systems to the agency's National Healthcare Safety Network.
SafetySurveillor is a part of Premier's SafetyConnect™ program, a comprehensive, integrated product and service offering aimed at addressing the pressing safety and infection-related challenges facing healthcare organizations today.
About Bon Secours St. Francis
Bon Secours St. Francis
Medical Center's services include all types of surgery, women's services,
24-hour on-site neonatology, 24-hour emergency care, cardiology, orthopedics,
oncology, urology, pediatric services, cardiac catheterization, MRI/CT and
diagnostics and nuclear medicine. Founded in 2005, St. Francis is the first new
hospital built to serve Richmond, Va., area residents south of the James River
in more than two decades.
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.