It's usually a CE presentation from Premier or Premier customers who have been able to utilize Premier's reporting tools, etc. to find substantial cost savings opportunities or increased contract compliance.

Your Premier rep should be able to give you further detail about what they're hoping to present this year.

I've always found it very helpful. It's hard to put a dollar figure on the networking opportunities at this conference, but that's always been my biggest benefit.

Years as a Buyer: 2

Thanks Colleen. I appreciate your feedback.

Name of Facility: Arnot Ogden Medical Center

City, State: Acute Care 256 beds

Years as a Buyer: 7

Just the opportunity to meet with Premier corporate executives has an impact both upon you and upon those who represent you to the vendor community, your GPO contract executives. Your healthcare system supports Premier by belonging to their GPO and taking advantage of the purchasing programs they have for you to utilize. Your hospital should jump at the possibility to have a Pharmacy Buyer with direct access to the decision makers at Premier, who make billion dollar contract decisions throughout the year on your behalf, usually with very little input from actual Pharmacy Buyers. Premier does have a task force of Pharmacy Buyers that meet with Premier executives periodically, but our meeting in Las Vegas gives any Premier Pharmacy Buyer direct face-to-face access to those Premier executives who negotiate the contracts that you have to support throughout the year.

It is also a two way street. If Premier finds that their Pharmacy Buyers could care less about what they do at Premier, the Premier people will be even more of the opinion that the Pharmacy Buyers in their group could care less about what contracts they negotiate. We do not ever want any GPO to think that their Pharmacy Buyers do not care, in fact the most usefull information I ever received while being the Contract Administrator for a large GPO for about 13 years was the input I received from Pharmacy Buyers, often just in phone calls that I willingly accepted. Usually the pharmacy programs of such large buying groups rely upon input from a committee of Pharmacy Directors who represent dozens of hospitals in their multi-hospital systems. I found that the better and more current information that was very valuable to our GPO, often came from Pharmacy Buyers who were doing today's day-to-day purchasing, not so much from supervisor pharmacists who had little current knowledge of daily happenings that affected the contracts they had input in negotiating.

If you do not represent your hospital at the Premier breakout session in Las Vegas, it is one vote for the apathy of your hospital about its participation in Premier buying programs. The more Pharmacy Buyers who do not show up to be counted, and to present input, the more the entire community of Pharmacy Buyers will tend to be written off by the GPO executives who feel Pharmacy Buyers will follow whatever they do like sheep, so what benefit is it to meet with them in Las Vegas?

Recently, the Consorta GPO agreed to pay their Pharmacy Buyers air fare to our convention. They feel attendance at the GPO break-out session and the rest of the conference is that valuable to their Pharmacy Buyers.

Another positive aspect to you and your hospital is the display floor where dozens of pharmaceutical companies display their products and services. If you meet executives at major pharmaceutical companies, and establish a business relationship with such executives, you know your hospital will receive better service when you call with a problem. Also, there is no better learning process for a Pharmacy Buyer than to be able to see in two days of displays, what it would be impossible to see when you are working at the hospital. Buyers often report they learn so much at our convention, they return to work with a renewed enthusiasm toward their purchasing responsibilities. We are so dismayed to hear of Pharmacy Buyers who are not given opportunities to excel in their profession because their bosses refuse to allow them to attend national meetings where so much knowledge and information can be picked up.

If you want to be counted as a true supporter of the Premier Pharmacy Purchasing Program, not just for your hospital but for many other hospital Pharmacy Buyers who were not able to attend, tell your bosses that it is essential that you be there for the reasons stated above.

Name of Facility: Summerdale Enterprises, Inc.

Please don't publish:

WOW! Dale, that was an impressive respopnse. Thank you SO much!

I feel a great deal of apathy from Administration towards my position. I am considered "non-essential personnel".

4 years ago (while I was still buyer/secretary for my department), I blew three discs in my back and was off work 12 weeks. I was told point blank by our VP that if I didn't come back after my 12 weeks FML were up, they would dissolve my position. They had made it fine without me for 12 weeks, so obviously I wasn't needed. Mind you, while I was gone, they had 2 RPh, one CPhT, a Secretary from Nursing Services offices and my Director doing my job. FIVE people, but they didn't need me.

That is what I deal with. And, according to the Salary survey PPO just published, I make $12K less a year than the LOWEST average salary in the COUNTRY!!!!

This is why I have to justify my attendance. :) Thanks for the ammunition!

Name of Facility: Arnot Ogden Medical Center

City, State: Acute Care

Years as a Buyer: 7 +