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Premier Inc. Develops Five-Year Patient Care Capital Spending Plan for West Penn Allegheny Health System

Posted on: Thursday, 30 March 2006, 12:00 CST

Consultants with the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance have developed a detailed strategic technology plan that will help guide Pittsburgh-based West Penn Allegheny Health System's (WPAHS) $130 million patient care capital spending for the next five years.

In four engagements during 16 months, Premier Supply Chain Performance Improvement consultants assessed the imaging and clinical patient care equipment needs of six-hospital WPAHS. The plan includes imaging, radiation oncology, cardiology and interventional cardiology, respiratory therapy, neurodiagnostic, clinical lab, pain management, obstetrics, endoscopy, surgery, nursing units and central sterile.

WPAHS includes two tertiary facilities - Allegheny General Hospital and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital, both in Pittsburgh - and four community hospitals. Serving Pittsburgh and the surrounding five-state area, they annually admit more than 80,000 patients, log more than 173,000 emergency visits and deliver nearly 6,000 babies.

Five years ago the West Pennsylvania Healthcare System salvaged the Pittsburgh area assets of the bankrupt Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation to create WPAHS. In a remarkable turnaround, all the systems hospitals operated profitably this year.

Vice President of Corporate Contracting David M. Zimba said WPAHS was "looking for insights as to whether the system had the wherewithal to accomplish what needed to be done" in terms of capital equipment.

"This plan has given us great confidence that we do have the resources to do the job," Zimba said. "It is a living document that we are using and will use going forward."

Zimba said that the process gave the organization an overview of all clinical assets greater than $10,000 and access to important information that otherwise would not have been available.

Describing the plan as "a capital needs plan with preauthorization," Zimba said, "It also minimizes the noise between organizations in our system in the competition for resources."

"It gives our hospital CEOs an extra tool," he said. "We have seen them use it to challenge each other, especially in situations where there is a tendency to over-prioritize. Its value is that it is added information from an external source."

Strategic technology planning is a critical component of effective healthcare capital asset management. Acquisition of promising new technology must be balanced with the need to replace or upgrade existing capital equipment. Healthcare decision-makers must keep up with new technologies while assessing their effect on existing capital equipment and the implications of adoption.

"Our role is to help hospitals assess their capital equipment needs so they can allocate limited funds most efficiently," said David A. Natale, a principal with Premier's SCPI Capital Lifecycle Solutions team. "Often we're brought in to validate assumptions or equipment wish-lists. As an objective third party, we can relieve some of the pressure on hospital administrators pressed to make critical and expensive decisions."

In addition to physical inspections and interviews with hospital staff, Natale sets benchmarks using Premier's databases and industry resources. The final report presents a snapshot of a hospital's current clinical technologies along with an objective analysis of current and future needs including new, emerging and replacement technologies.

About West Penn Allegheny Health System

West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS) is comprised of some of Western Pennsylvania's oldest and best-known names in healthcare. It includes Allegheny General Hospital and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital, both tertiary facilities in Pittsburgh, as well as Alle-Kiski Medical Center, Natrona Heights; Canonsburg General Hospital, Canonsburg; The Western Pennsylvania Hospital - Forbes Regional Campus, Monroeville; and AGH-Suburban Campus, Bellevue. The system serves Pittsburgh and a surrounding five-state area with more than 2,000 beds and employs more than 13,000 people. WPAHS hospitals have won national and international recognition for programs in several specialty areas and have a strong commitment to medical research, education and training healthcare professionals. Allegheny General Hospital is the clinical campus for the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital, the clinical campus for Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

About Premier Inc.

Premier Inc., helps hospitals accelerate performance on both clinical outcomes and supply chain costs. Premier is a healthcare alliance entirely owned by more than 200 of the nation's leading not-for-profit hospitals and healthcare systems. These organizations operate or are affiliated with nearly 1,500 hospitals and more than 38,500 other healthcare sites. Premier provides an array of resources supporting health services delivery, including clinical and operational comparative data applications for quality/safety performance improvement, group purchasing and supply chain services, and insurance programs. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Premier has offices in Charlotte, NC, Chicago, and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.

Source: Business Wire

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