Premier Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina: Michael J. Alkire, President & CEO

An essay of up to 650 words

1. Bringing Competitors Together for the Greater Good: Alkire created a coalition of unlikely partners across public and private sectors at the beginning of the pandemic. The group consisted of more than 20 manufacturers, distributors and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) that worked with the White House and dozens of federal agencies to speed the national response to the pandemic, including strategies to gather data, forecast demand, identify needed regulatory changes, preserve inventory, increase available supplies, and allocate to providers based on need.

1. Creating the Nation’s First AI-enabled Syndromic Surveillance System: Scaling existing technology, Alkire ignited the development of a syndromic surveillance solution that provided early warning of a COVID-19 surge, up to two weeks before test results were received.

1. Delivering Occupancy and Supply Chain Forecasting: Under Alkire’s direction, Premier created a technology, leveraged by federal officials to predict the COVID-19 census for any U.S. hospital, enabling facilities to forecast hotspots with greater accuracy than anyone else.

1. Mobilizing Providers for Domestic Manufacturing: Prior to and during the pandemic, Alkire led Premier, and its members to advance the domestic (and more diverse) production of vital medical supplies. Premier and hundreds of leading U.S. health systems were among the first to make investments in domestic manufacturers via a replicable model that leverages purchasing commitments and existing production capacity, forging unique partnerships with and producers of vital PPE and pharmaceutical products for sustainable, cost-effective and long-term sourcing options.

1. Establishing an Innovative Global Sourcing Strategy: One of Alkire’s crowning achievements was the establishment of Premier’s global direct sourcing arm. Recognizing the need to diversify supply chain sourcing and build added transparency, he launched a first-of-its-kind direct sourcing company – S2S Global – that has been diversifying the sourcing and production of medical supplies, spreading business to multiple countries and regions to mitigate the ongoing risks of shortages. Going direct also helps providers increase efficiency, decrease lead time to procure hard-to-source products and realize cost savings.

1. Developing a Novel Approach to Prevent Drug Shortages: Through a unique committed purchasing model, and inspired by Alkire’s passion to disrupt drug pricing, Premier built an industry-leading program that helps assure provider access to critical drugs. Since 2020, Premier efforts:

• Have successfully resolved 14 drug shortages, resulting in their official delisting from the FDA shortage list at this time.
• Helped ensure uninterrupted supply of many shortage drugs despite demand spikes of more than 150 percent during the pandemic.
• Brought resiliency to the market by incenting the domestic manufacture of vital drugs through investments in VGYAAN and Exela Pharma Sciences, which combined are working to bring new, domestic sources of competition for 20 different shortage drugs and counting.

1. Assembling a Full Suite of Healthcare Technology Offerings: PINC AI^™ was launched in 2021 and includes more than 20 years of cost, quality and operational data from 45 percent of U.S. hospital discharges, 812 million hospital outpatient and clinic encounters and 131 million office visits, PINC AI^™ provides actionable intelligence to help advance research and clinical trials, improve patient outcomes, support improved financial performance and drive success in alternative payment models. Another notable offering is Remitra™, Premier’s a cloud-based procure-to-pay (P2P) technology that seamlessly automates financial processes to reduce waste and increase efficiencies for both healthcare providers and suppliers.

1. Building the Healthcare Encyclopedia: Alkire supercharged the advancement of PINC AI™ Applied Sciences (PAS), which helps accelerate regulatory reviews and commercialization of treatment therapies for life sciences companies. The PAS team maintains the PINC AI™ Healthcare Database (PHD), which contains more than 20+ years of HIPAA-compliant data. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is utilizing the PINC AI™ Healthcare Database (PHD) to further COVID-19 public health science.

1. Addressing Employer-Sponsored Healthcare: Under Alkire’s leadership, Contigo Health, Premier’s direct-to-employer offering, was launched and expanded to provide more comprehensive network services, back-office support and infrastructure for employer- and provider-sponsored health plans.

1. Advancing DEI&B: Alkire codified Premier’s diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging (DEI&B) strategy, creating a leadership and governance structure with the same rigor as financial performance. Under his leadership, Premier reports on its sustainability and DEI&B practices via an annual ESG report (a program Alkire launched), and Alkire has established annual incentive objectives to improve DEI&B both internally and externally. Beyond corporate governance, Mike is injecting the DEI&B strategy into member-facing solutions that improve economic opportunities for underserved communities and move the industry toward more diverse and resilient sourcing. Alkire created a company-wide Supplier Diversity Pledge, codifying commitments to equitable business opportunities that result in the inclusion, growth and increased spend with diverse suppliers. With 400 such contracts, Premier is fostering an environment rich in diversity where our members bring equity and distinct perspectives to their supply chains.

Total 649 words used.

Michael J. Alkire is President and CEO of Premier Inc., a technology-driven healthcare improvement company uniting an alliance of more than 4,400 U.S. health systems and approximately 250,000 other providers. Appointed by the Board in 2021 after nearly two decades leading Premier’s strategy and innovation, Alkire is the force behind Premier’s growth and industry impact.

Alkire has been one of the most instrumental advocates helping U.S. healthcare providers and our nation manage through the COVID-19 pandemic – while also building a more resilient and tech-enabled healthcare system of the future.

Alkire has led Premier’s growth and evolution to become a trusted connection point for the country’s healthcare providers, as well as manufacturers, distributors and the government. With the largest clinical, operational and financial database in the nation and a disruptive approach to addressing the most difficult of challenges, Premier leverages comprehensive data, analytics and supply chain solutions to provide healthcare organizations with the intelligence and access they need to deliver positive outcomes.

Premier was the only national organization with the needed technologies and innovations in place to help our nation avoid a range of compounding disasters that would have slowed or stopped our national response to COVID-19. These innovations will continue to improve the reliability of the supply chain well beyond the pandemic.

Alkire is passionate about healthcare innovation and tech enablement, particularly for manual processes. In his first major corporate initiative as CEO, he launched PINC AI^TM, Premier’s comprehensive technology and consulting platform, including clinical, operational and financial solutions designed to improve hospital performance – and the quality, safety and overall outcomes delivered to patients.

Through groundbreaking data, technology and services, Premier is enabling providers to tackle today’s most pressing challenges and has seen both significant growth and more than $1.5B in savings for members.

Alkire’s formula for unlocking Premier’s growth is to closely align with member needs. Premier’s solutions are designed to relieve the pain our members are feeling because of the lingering implications of COVID-19 and the resulting impact on supply chains, product shortages and labor challenges, among other issues. His vision drives solutions that address the unique needs of providers today, while accelerating healthcare transformation for the future.

For example, Premier was the first entity to quantify the added costs hospitals faced as inflation took hold. According to PINC AI™ data, U.S. hospitals paid $24B more per year for qualified clinical labor than they did pre-pandemic. Alongside this analysis, Alkire led the development of innovative solutions that help providers manage costs and extend the efficiency of scarce workforce resources, including labor benchmarking tools to identify bottlenecks; clinical decision support to automate administrative tasks; and technologies to optimize healthcare purchasing.

In addition to Premier’s cost management capabilities, Alkire built upon his record of creating a more resilient supply chain – continuing to pursue differentiated manufacturing investments with some of the nation’s leading health systems. To this end, he has spearheaded investments in domestic manufacturers of critical products, including PPE and pharmaceuticals, to ensure uninterrupted access in the future.

Alkire has grown Premier’s capabilities to provide transparency and risk assessments through supplier mapping, risk scoring and AI-enabled data intelligence based on key criteria (i.e., geographic diversity, sustainability practices). With this data, Premier can immediately see early warning signs of disruption – and can efficiently communicate and collaborate. PINC AI™ technology is also leveraged to pinpoint and mitigate product shortages, ensuring providers have access to supplies and pharmaceuticals necessary for patient care.

Premier’s ability to deliver meaningful solutions and differentiated value are reflected in the results of its annual C-suite satisfaction survey, with [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION] health system executives viewing Premier as a strategic partner or extension of their organization. Similarly, Premier achieved an all-time high net promoter score – [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION].