ST. LOUIS – SSM Health Care – St. Louis is a winner of the Premier health care alliance Supply Chain Innovation Award. The award was presented at the 2011 Premier Annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition in Nashville, Tenn., on June 15.
SSM Health Care – St. Louis is one of 14 organizations to receive the award, which recognizes successful innovations that have created new levels of performance while improving patient care and safely reducing costs. The supply chain innovation award was given to SSM Health Care – St. Louis for our work on consolidating all non-supply contracts such as building leases, physician contracts, time-share agreements and affiliation agreements.
“Rather than having multiple contracts from multiple offices and facilities, we created standardized contracts all issued and monitored from one centralized office,” said Nalin Kulasekara, vice president of contract and supply chain management for SSM Health Care – St. Louis. “By working to create a more efficient system, we were able to save money and time as well as eliminate confusion and errors.”
In the past two years, this new protocol has saved the organization more than one million dollars. By eliminating expired and duplicate contracts, the workgroup was able to consolidate and lessen the amount of paperwork circulating throughout the organization. This process reduced the number of active yet expired contracts from 41 to 7 percent.
“These innovations are already supporting Premier alliance members in accelerating their supply chain performance,” said Mike Alkire, president of Premier Purchasing Partners. “We celebrate SSM Health Care – St. Louis’s continued successes as they work to provide high-quality care at the best cost.”
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 75,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care.
About SSM Health Care – St. Louis
SSM Health Care – St. Louis’ mission statement — “Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God” — is embodied by 11,000 employees and 2,500 staff physicians. Sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, the health care network offers comprehensive health care services, but specializes in heart, cancer, neurosciences, pediatrics, weight-loss, sleep, imaging, behavioral health, rehab and fetal surgery. A winner of the Missouri Quality Award and multiple Best Places to Work awards, SSM Health Care – St. Louis includes seven hospitals ― Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, DePaul Health Center, St. Clare Health Center, St. Joseph Health Center, St. Joseph Health Center – Wentzville, St. Joseph Hospital West and St. Mary’s Health Center ― a free-standing ambulatory care center (St. Joseph Medical Park), plus a Managed Care Organization (MCO), and a Physicians' Organization (PO). Go to www.ssmhealth.com for more information.
For media inquires, contact:
Kristen Johnson
Media Relations Specialist
SSM Health Care – St. Louis
314-989-2208 (office)
314-908-0225 (pager)
kristen_johnson@ssmhc.com