Partnership Builds Sustainable Cost Reductions
By Wendy Grafius, contributing writer
Renewal of performance improvement relationship allows for optimization of cost management and improves the standard of care
Advocate Health Care, Illinois State’s largest health system, has renewed its relationship with MedAssets, a leading healthcare performance improvement company, to sustain cost reductions and improve operational efficiencies. The continued bond with the solutions provider will allow Advocate to optimize cost management and improve the standard of care across its continuum.
A long-time customer of MedAssets’, Advocate in 2011 extended its group purchasing agreement (GPO) with the partnering organization, and added Service Line Analytics and Clinical Consulting Services to support sustainable performance improvement. Strategic Sourcing, Capital and Construction, Procure-to-Pay solutions, and Cost Analytics from MedAssets were later added, resulting in successes in cost management initiatives and leading to this most recent extension in the relationship.
“Our health system continues to invest in our partnership with MedAssets to help us control costs and improve quality so that our patients can receive optimal care,” said Tom Lubotsky, Advocate’s VP of supply chain and clinical resource management. “We have truly transformed our organization, moving from traditional methods of improving financial performance to becoming a progressive supply chain that operates even more closely with our physicians to improve the clinical effectiveness of our acquired products, technologies, equipment, and services.”
MedAssets has helped the clinically-integrated supply chain focus on innovative cost-reduction strategies in the face of healthcare’s fundamental changes. “Improving the standard of care begins with establishing a sustainable cost structure,” said John Bardis, chairman, president, and CEO of MedAssets. “We are dedicated to helping our clients connect the dots between price, resource utilization, and care quality to sustain measurable results. We are honored that Advocate Health Care continues to entrust our expertise and technology-enabled solutions, and we look forward to continuing our partnership to make their care resources more efficient and effective.”
Based in Downers Grove, Illinois, Advocate Health Care provides care at more than 250 locations including 12 acute care hospitals that have a combined 3,300 beds, five Level I trauma centers, and three Level II trauma centers. Advocate is one of the largest healthcare providers in the Midwest and was named among the nation’s Top 5 largest health systems by Truven Analytics. The nonprofit mission-based system is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, contributing $614 million in charitable care and services to residents of Central Illinois in 2012. The system also comprises one of the region’s largest home health care companies and medical groups. With four teaching hospitals, Advocate trains more primary care physicians and residents than any other Illinois health system.
SOURCE: Business Wire