BUILDING AN ITEM
MASTER DATABASE
THAT DELIVERS
STANDARDIZATION
ACROSS DISPARATE
SYSTEMS AND
DATA SOURCES
SIGNIFICANTLY
REDUCED COSTS
AND IMPROVED
SERVICES
FOR PREMIER
PURCHASING
PARTNERS’
MEMBERS.
Marla Weigert,
group vice president,
Purchasing Partners
Data/Technology
As one of the health
care industry’s largest
group purchasing
organizations, Premier
Purchasing Partners is
responsible for evaluating products and services and then selecting
the most cost-effective
solutions. The goal of
the Charlotte, N.C.-based organization is
to unite a fragmented,
chaotic and inefficient
health care system.
Seven years ago, frustrated by the lack of
industry-standard
product, supplier and
organization ID numbers,
Premier decided to collect data from disparate
systems and standardize
them based on Premier’s
item master list.
Marla Weigert, group
vice president, Purchasing Partners Data/
Technology, details
how Premier streamlined the product information management
process and reduced
the time and resources
spent manually standardizing data.
Going for the
Gold Standard
BASELINE NOVEMBER 2008
43
PHOTO: COURTESY OF PREMIER PURCHASING PARTNERS
