Company: Premier, Inc., Charlotte, NC
Company Description: Premier, Inc. is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 3,400 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 other providers to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. In short, Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Health Products & Services

Nomination Title: Michael J. Alkire, COO

Tell the story about what this nominated executive has achieved since January 1, 2014 (up to 650 words). Describe the impact he or she has had on your organization. Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

Despite the many changes and challenges that have come to characterize healthcare, 2014 was Premier’s most profitable year yet. Premier produced double-digit revenue and earnings growth while successfully completing four strategic acquisitions since the company went public in October 2013. This growth was achieved through many efforts led by Premier’s COO Michael J. Alkire throughout 2014. Today, valued at more than $5 billion, Premier has the capital necessary to accelerate the development of innovative solutions for the most pressing challenges facing our nation’s healthcare systems.

As COO of the largest collaborative alliance of health systems in the U.S., Alkire is devoted to the continued integration of Premier's offerings helping health systems provide higher quality care at a better cost. He oversees these offerings, enabling alliance members to make decisions based on a combination of healthcare information. Growing the alliance by 15% in 2014, Alkire’s leadership strategies are now helping nearly 70% of our nation’s health systems improve performance, integrate and compare data, and use innovative purchasing practices to save tens of billions of dollars. These health systems recently rated Premier 94% in overall satisfaction.

Alkire is passionate in his leadership to operationalize the use of science and comparative data to transform America’s healthcare system. Insisting that Premier build hybrid, data-driven capabilities that offer solutions to the challenges facing health systems, in 2014 Alkire led Premier to launch a next-generation cloud-based enterprise data warehouse. A first in healthcare, providers use big data in the warehouse to unify, compare and scale their clinical, financial and supply chain information in real-time. It integrates all of Premier’s solutions, including the nation’s largest repository of healthcare data on 1 in 3 hospital discharges.

Over the year, these advances in technology and services led Premier to achieve national recognition, such as being named an IBM Beacon Award winner for information management innovation using big data and analytics; ranked #1 by KLAS for its healthcare delivery model solutions and services; rated among the top organizations by Chilmark Research for its membership model, collaborative focus, massive data assets, and combined technology and services offerings; and named a leader for its cloud-based enterprise data warehouse, specifically, by IDC MarketScape.

Alkire is a visible, transparent and energetic leader. The success of Premier would not be possible without this unique style of management. His entire approach to improving healthcare is based on the sharing of best practices and actively bringing proven ideas forward. With a passion for comparative effectiveness research and removing unjustified variation, Alkire ignited healthcare industry changes to deliver greater value by creating new ways to improve operational efficiency and drive out unnecessary waste among costly physician preference items (PPIs). He helped develop a contract management and data solution that specifically targets PPIs in high-cost categories across 70 million price points. Premier members now compare 139 different disease states to identify price variations, saving 12-20% on PPIs.

Alkire spends almost every weekday traveling the country to meet with hospital executives, healthcare industry leaders and lawmakers. This includes his continued advocacy efforts to reduce drug shortages. Although he played a critical role in the President and Congress taking corrective action against the national drug shortage problem in 2011 and 2012, testifying before Congress to enact the FDA Safety and Innovation Act, Alkire continues to drive advocacy around the issue. In fact, in February 2014 he was featured in The Associated Press discussing Premier’s 2014 drug shortages analysis and how providers are coping with the ongoing problem. He continues to speak to drug shortages, suggesting in December 2014 to Fortune that U.S. hospitals pay at least $230 million more a year than they ordinarily would to find alternative treatments.

Growing Premier’s employee-base by 15% in 2014, Alkire also led the company to be named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the eight year in a row and one of the Healthiest Employers in Charlotte.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of this nominated executive since the beginning of 2014

1. Led Premier to generate year-over-year consolidated net revenue increases of 19%.
2. Launched a next-generation cloud-based enterprise data warehouse.
3. Grew the Premier customer base by 15% to unite nearly 70% of our nation’s health systems.
4. Lowered costly physician preference item prices for health systems.
5. Grew Premier’s employee-base by 15% in 2014.
6. Achieved national recognition for the company for innovative technology solutions and services.
7. Led Premier to be named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies and one of the Healthiest Employers in Charlotte.
8. Led Premier to publish peer-reviewed research on measures of healthcare quality and efficiency.
9. Continued national advocacy efforts around the nationwide drug shortage problem.
10. Won the Gold Award for COO of the Year for the 2014 Golden Bridge Awards.