Lake Zurich's Champion Healthcare Technologies awarded purchasing contract

Champion Healthcare Technologies of Lake Zurich has been awarded a group purchasing contract for unique device management solutions by Premier Inc.

The three-year agreement allows Premier members, at their discretion, to take advantage of special pricing and terms pre-negotiated by Premier for Champion's industry-leading medical device management system, UDITracker. The deal represents the nation's first GPO contract around unique device identifiers.

Champion's solution allows automated tracking and managing of medical devices from arrival at the hospital to use in patient care and beyond, and takes advantage of the Food and Drug Administration's UDI initiative. Over the past two years, all implantable devices have had to start carrying bar codes with a device identifier, which is a reference number/product code that attaches to a description of the manufacturer; and a production identifier, which has a unique lot number, serial number and expiration date. UDITracker keeps track of all this data and flags expired devices, while facilitating instant location of recalled devices. Hospitals that adopt UDITracker stand to save millions of dollars annually through reduced waste and improved inventory management processes.

"We are thrilled with the opportunity presented by the Premier contract, and congratulate them for taking the lead on UDI management," said Peter I. Casady, Champion's co-founder and CEO. "It's a good example of Premier's willingness to partner with innovative organizations to meet the needs of its members. To date, too few hospitals have taken advantage of the enormous opening presented by UDIs to make patient care safer and more affordable. If the grocery stores of yesterday never bought the scanning equipment and the software to manage inventory, bar codes on food items would have been useless. In health care, unfortunately, devices long since recalled for serious safety problems often wind up being used in patient care."

More than 10,000 recalled devices have been identified using RecallConnect, part of the UDITracker system. Another Champion offering, RFID Storage Solutions, which secures chain of custody of expensive implants, was awarded a Premier contract in March.

Premier is a health care improvement company, with approximately 3,600 U.S. hospitals and 120,000 other providers. The company works with its members to enable better care and outcomes at a lower cost.