The University of Tennessee (UT) Medical Center has extended its partnership with Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) for an additional five years, and expanded its relationship to leverage performance improvement advisory services.

At the forefront of research, technology and treatments, UT Medical Center is East Tennessee's only academic medical center, Level I Trauma Center, dedicated Heart Hospital, and adult and pediatric transplant center. The 581-bed hospital also serves as a regional perinatal center. UT Medical Center has been a Premier alliance member for nearly 10 years, using both its performance and supply chain services to drive cost and quality efficiencies, and better outcomes and patient experiences.

UT Medical Center extended its agreement with Premier through December 2020 to continue to use Premier's group purchasing organization for cost reductions through the aggregation of data, purchasing and best practices. In addition, the academic medical center will continue to access the following industry-leading SaaS (software-as-a-service) quality, safety and operations analytics powered by Premier's performance improvement platform PremierConnect(R).

• PremierConnect Quality analytics to drive quality cycle management, improve resource utilization and eliminate unjustified variation.

• PremierConnect Safety clinical surveillance analytics to monitor and protect patients from infections, harmful drug interactions and other adverse events.

• PremierConnect Operations labor and productivity benchmarking analytics for insights on labor performance across the continuum of care.

"Creating a clinically integrated UT system of care is central to our goal to establish a strong presence across the communities we serve," said Joseph R. Landsman, president and CEO, The University of Tennessee Medical Center. "In our partnership with Premier, we've worked to initiate these changes to become more coordinated, reduce costs and ultimately improve outcomes for the many lives we touch in and beyond our region. We are excited to continue working with Premier and its members to co-develop solutions to the challenges that providers, patients and families face each day."

PremierConnect enables the sharing of insights and integrated data from alliance members to drive effective and efficient clinical, financial and operational decisions. The platform rapidly aggregates, cleanses and manages data for actionable insights on care delivery and outcomes, all in one place.

In expanding its partnership, UT Medical Center will engage Premier advisory services to accelerate strategic performance improvements in continuum-wide care management, including post-acute care, as well as clinical integration and care quality optimization across its organization.

UT Medical Center will also continue to share data and best practices with other alliance health systems as a member of Premier's QUEST(R) quality improvement collaborative to set new standards in care delivery.

"UT Medical Center has been nationally recognized for excellence in patient care, medical education and biomedical research," said Susan DeVore, president and CEO, Premier. "Premier and its members have been able to benefit from their ground-breaking discoveries in improving care delivery. We look forward to continuing our work with UT Medical Center to further integrate care, advance continuum-wide care management strategies and drive better outcomes and healthier communities."

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.