Illinois Purchasing Collaborative:
$9 million-plus savings since
2007
Alexian Brothers Medical Center
Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital
Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital
Carle Foundation Hospital
Centegra Hospital –
McHenry
Centegra Hospital – Woodstock
Central DuPage Hospital
Children’s
Memorial Hospital
Gottlieb Memorial Hospital
Ingalls Memorial Hospital
Katherine
Shaw Bethea Hospital
Mercy Hospital & Medical Center
Methodist Medical Center of
Illinois
Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center
Our Lady of the Resurrection
Medical Center
Resurrection Medical Center
Riverside Medical Center
Roseland
Community Hospital
Saint Francis Hospital
Saint Joseph Hospital
Saint Mary &
Elizabeth Medical Center/Saint Elizabeth Campus
Saint Mary & Elizabeth Medical
Center/Saint Mary Campus
St. Alexius Medical Center
The Methodist Hospitals,
Inc. – Northlake
The Methodist Hospitals, Inc. – Southlake
Thorek Memorial
Hospital
Touchette Regional Hospital
West Suburban Hospital
Westlake Hospital
illinoispurchasingcollaborative.com
Challenge
Members of the Illinois Hospital Association are no different from their counterparts in other parts of the country. They face a growing imperative – made even more mandatory by recently passed health reform legislation – to reduce healthcare expenses and channel savings toward improving and/or expanding care.
Solution:
The Illinois Purchasing Collaborative (IPC) was established in 2006 to directly support and strengthen the Illinois Hospital Association’s (IHA) mission of advocating for hospitals and health systems as they serve their patients and communities. Designed to reduce healthcare supply chain expenses, the IPC is a creative collaboration among IHA, hospitals and healthcare systems and the Premier healthcare alliance.
IPC and its members share a common vision and purpose: to take costs out of the healthcare supply chain and channel additional resources to improving patient care. There are no membership fees.
Strategic direction is member-driven. Savings are the result of volume aggregation, group buys and manufacturer rebates. IPC provides customized, dedicated staffing support, access to Premier’s electronic sourcing, ongoing opportunity monitoring and transparency. Members exchange information in face-to-face meetings, conference calls and networking opportunities.
Pairing the benefits of national pricing from one of the nation’s leading GPOs with the advantages and flexibility of regional contracting, the 29 IPC member hospitals achieve significant value.
When IHA launched IPC in May 2006, it was only the second statewide hospital association to establish a regional aggregating and contracting resource to provide members access to pricing tiers previously unattainable.
Result:
- In its nearly four years of full-scale operations, IPC has experienced $9.05 million in member-reported savings, representing IPC affiliate hospital savings through the Premier portfolio as well as owner/affiliate savings through IPC direct and Premier enhanced agreements.
- Average contract savings are 13 percent.
- IPC has 105 regional contracts to date.
- Three hospitals joined IPC in 2007, four in 2008 and two to date in 2010: Touchette Regional Hospital, Centreville, and Roseland Community Hospital, Chicago.
"Within the first couple of weeks of the conversion, we executed 23 contracts which resulted in a savings ranging from 4 percent to 10 percent. . . . Premier has been very useful in providing us with supply chain metrics to help measure our efficiencies. . . . We have found the customized IPC staffing support to be invaluable. . . . IPC has been outstanding with data analysis and helping us to determine what is best for our organization."
Mike McManus
Chief Operating Officer
Touchette Regional Hospital, Centreville, IL