The Premier healthcare alliance today announced that it is expanding its relationship with North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC). The Tupelo, Miss.-based healthcare system, which in 2006 was named a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient along with Premier Inc., will deploy both the infection control and pharmacy modules of Premier’s SafetySurveillor(TM).
The third largest rural healthcare system in the nation will use SafetySurveillor to track and prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and to optimize antibiotic use, thereby increasing patient safety and reducing costs.
NMMC also joins QUEST: High Performing Hospitals, a Premier program designed to help hospitals and healthcare systems drive healthcare to new levels of performance. QUEST will develop next-generation quality, safety and cost metrics with a level of consistency and standardization that does not exist today.
The diversified not-for-profit healthcare system serving 22 counties in north Mississippi and northwest Alabama has used Quality Manager for more than seven years to collect, aggregate, and analyze Joint Commission/CMS Core Measure data, identify areas for clinical outcomes improvement, and implement process changes that directly impact patient care.
NMMC Chief Quality Officer Dr. Michael L. O’Dell said, “Safety and control of spread of infections are top priorities for NMMC – Tupelo and our affiliated community hospitals. A patient with an infection presents us with two mandates: a mandate to discover that infection rapidly and successfully treat the patient and a mandate to protect other patients, staff, and visitors from inadvertently being exposed to that same infection. HAIs are particularly important to us in that these illnesses are often more difficult than most to treat once acquired. SafetySurveillor offers us a better means to meet our mandates.”
NMMC will deploy SafetySurveillor at the 650-bed North Mississippi Medical Center, the system’s flagship hospital, and NMMC Women’s Hospital, both in Tupelo, as well as community hospitals in Eupora, Iuka, Pontotoc and West Point, Miss., and Hamilton, Ala.
More than 200 hospitals nationwide have chosen the Web-based application, making SafetySurveillor the most widely adopted infection control solution in the past 12 months. It 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 SafetySurveillor hospitals can automatically detect HAIs and alert staff, facilitating timely intervention to reduce and prevent infections.
Premier’s SafetySurveillor 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.
North Mississippi Health Services
North Mississippi Health Services is a diversified regional healthcare organization, which serves 22 counties in north Mississippi and northwest Alabama from headquarters in Tupelo. The NMHS organization covers a broad range of acute diagnostic and therapeutic services, offered through North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo; a community hospital system with locations in Eupora, Iuka, Pontotoc, and West Point in Mississippi and Hamilton in Alabama; and North Mississippi Medical Clinics, a regional network of more than 30 primary and specialty clinics; and nursing homes. NMHS offers a comprehensive portfolio of managed care plans. Educational programs and early intervention are important aspects of our services, but our main focus is to provide convenient access to quality health care. NMHS works to achieve its corporate mission to improve the health of the people of this region by providing conveniently accessible, cost-effective healthcare of the highest quality.
About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Serving more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals and 53,000-plus other healthcare sites, the Premier healthcare alliance and its members are transforming healthcare together. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the leading healthcare purchasing networks and the nation’s most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information. A subsidiary operates one of the nation’s largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups. A world leader in helping healthcare providers deliver dramatic improvements in care, Premier is working with the United Kingdom’s National Health Service North West and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Washington. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.
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