Roche Diagnostics has executed four new contracts with Premier's group purchasing program to provide the healthcare alliance's members with products and services for blood glucose monitoring, chemistry, immunochemistry, and hematology. It is estimated that the combined expenditure by Premier hospitals in these four categories may amount to more than $650 million annually.

"These four new contracts enable us to continue a successful partnership that began in 1997," commented Bob Hamon, Vice President, Clinical Laboratory and Imaging Services at Premier. "Of particular importance is Roche's ability to cover the needs of our broad spectrum of members through a wide selection of configurations on common platforms, making it possible to standardize processes, compare results, and increase efficiency."

The blood glucose contract covers Roche's entire hospital blood glucose monitoring line, including the Accu-Chek Inform blood glucose monitoring system and DataCare connectivity solutions.

With the chemistry agreement, Premier members have a choice of MODULAR Systems and COBAS Integra platforms, as well as Task Targeted Automation and pre-analytical automation on MODULAR Systems. The immunochemistry agreement covers the entire Elecsys family, including the MODULAR ANALYTICS E170 Module, Elecsys 2010 System, and Elecsys 1010 System.

The award of both chemistry and immunochemistry to Roche Diagnostics is particularly significant in light of recent trends for laboratories to integrate chemistry and immunochemistry within a single work area to maximize productivity and efficiency. Through Roche Diagnostics, Premier members will be able to develop custom solutions for an integrated chemistry and immunochemistry system with the flexibility to select the platforms and the approach to integration that best meet each laboratory's needs.

The hematology contract gives Premier members access to the Sysmex hematology product line. The Sysmex XE-2100 hematology analyzer, for example, offers more diagnostic power through a combination of state-of-the-art fluorescent flow cytometry and cell counting technologies.