CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FirstHealth of the Carolinas, a four-hospital system based in Pinehurst, N.C., has expanded its nearly 20-year partnership with Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC), a leading healthcare improvement company, to leverage Premier’s cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution as a service.

FirstHealth of the Carolinas is a comprehensive private, not-for-profit healthcare system serving 15 counties in the mid-Carolinas. With over 4,700 employees, FirstHealth also operates facilities for primary care and specialty clinics, home care, hospice, convenient care, an insurance company, health and fitness, and a host of other services and programs throughout its large geographic footprint. Through its longstanding relationship with Premier, FirstHealth leverages both Premier’s supply chain and performance services, including group purchasing, quality and operational analytics, and specialty pharmacy services. Its new five-year agreement with Premier includes healthcare-focused ERP solutions powered by the PremierConnect^® performance improvement platform, which is nationally recognized for having strong cloud technology and intuitive analytics.

“Our relationship with Premier has expanded over the past several years,” said Lynn DeJaco, chief financial officer, FirstHealth of the Carolinas. “Premier’s ERP solution offers a robust system with flexible technology that can efficiently manage and optimize clinical, operational and financial work streams across our hospitals and medical clinics. We are looking forward to implementing Premier’s solution with minimal impact on employees so that we can focus on achieving high-quality care at the best cost for our patients.”

With the growing movement to value-based payments, healthcare providers need solutions that can help them clearly understand continuum-wide cost drivers and opportunities for improvement in detail. Premier’s complementary ERP assets include PremierConnect Supply Chain and financial budgeting capabilities from Healthcare Insights, LLC, which Premier acquired in August 2015. Together, these assets integrate, monitor and manage clinical, financial and operational information to enable data-driven decisions across hospitals, health systems and growing integrated care delivery networks alike. In addition, they are interoperable and can easily communicate with other technologies, including electronic health records (EHRs). 

“We’re increasingly finding that health systems are interested in engaging Premier for a more complete and integrated solution,” said Keith J. Figlioli, senior vice president, healthcare informatics, Premier. “Providers like FirstHealth want to know that their data is integrated and standardized so they can make more valuable decisions quickly. Our solutions are interoperable, economical and are offered as a service so they can easily be integrated into daily practices to improve outcomes and manage costs across all sites of care. We’re excited to be working with FirstHealth to help them better understand organizational performance in every arena so they can deliver high-quality, cost-effective care in their communities.”

The financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Forward-looking statements

Matters discussed in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts, such as FirstHealth’s anticipated use of Premier’s supply chain and performance services at expected levels, as discussed herein, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “anticipates” or “plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier’s control. More information on potential factors that could affect Premier’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Forward Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Premier’s periodic and current filings with the SEC and available on Premier’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise that occur after that date.

About FirstHealth of the Carolinas

FirstHealth of the Carolinas, a private, not-for-profit health care network, is headquartered in Pinehurst, N.C. Its more than 4,700 employees serve 15 counties in the mid-Carolinas. Licensed for four hospitals with 531 beds and also including facilities for inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, a hospice, a home care program, community outreach programs, behavioral services, fitness facilities, primary and convenient care practices, a hospitality house, EMS and critical care transport services, a non-profit insurance plan, a philanthropic foundation and a host of other services, FirstHealth demonstrates a commitment to treating the whole patient and to providing quality health care for the entire community – especially those in need.

Moore Regional Hospital, FirstHealth’s flagship hospital, is an acute-care facility with 387 licensed beds. It offers a broad spectrum of specialties and a full range of health care services that match those typically associated with university medical centers and large urban hospitals. With the region’s constant changes, Moore Regional continues to refine its knowledge of the most advanced technology – all for the patients it serves.

About Premier, Inc.

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,600 U.S. hospitals and 120,000 other providers to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Premier’s blog for more information about the company.