Premier Listens to Members

Executive Summary

Premier Inc., the group purchasing organization which took flack from members a year ago, is revamping its laboratory supplies contracting strategy in order to make the selection process more scientific in order to provide greater value to members. Three years after it was formed from the merger of three GPOs, members were complaining about the organization's lack of communication, its pricing, and decisions about vendors that some saw as arbitrary. Premier is implementing a decision matrix to help its 18-member lab committee evaluate vendor proposals and instituting tiered pricing, which correlates the price offered to members to their purchase volumes. In June, Premier launched a service offering labs comparative data on efficiency and cost structure; it is about to start a pilot study to determine the most efficient way of contracting for vendors.