Stericycle Signs Multi-Year, Multi-Service Agreement With Premier for Hazardous Waste Management
Acute care hospital members can utilize or contract with one provider to manage multiple hazardous waste streams as part of a national agreement
LAKE FOREST, Ill., July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Stericycle Inc. (Nasdaq: SRCL), a leader in healthcare-related services that protects people and reduces risk, announced it has been awarded a new contract by Premier Purchasing Partners, LP, the group purchasing unit of Premier Inc.
The national agreement for Stericycle's Hazardous Waste service, effective July 1, 2010, is available to 2,300 acute care hospital members of the Premier healthcare alliance. Also in the agreement are two existing services – Stericycle's Regulated Medical Waste and Pharmaceutical Waste Compliance services - and a new service - Stericycle's Integrated Waste Stream Solutions.
Stericycle selected as exclusive healthcare waste supplier
As part of this national agreement, Premier also selected Stericycle as the sole source provider for its ASCEND program (Accelerated Supply Chain Endeavor) that is designed to help healthcare providers achieve and sustain rapid improvements in supply chain performance. In this agreement, Premier selected Stericycle as the exclusive medical waste supplier of all four services to the 188 ASCEND members.
Service covers all hazardous waste streams
Stericycle's Hazardous Waste service effectively balances a hospital's need for cost savings, adhering to environmental best practices and meeting regulatory requirements. For example:
- Costs can be better contained due to proactive waste scheduling and appropriate hazardous waste segregation
- Environmental best practices can be maintained when handling and treating chemotherapy, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, formalin from laboratory specimens, hand sanitizers, and more
- Compliance is achieved by meeting multiple governing bodies' regulations and standards including the:
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
- Department of Transportation (DOT)
- The Joint Commission (TJC)
Many hospitals regularly seek guidance on how to stay in compliance with EPA and RCRA regulations to manage their hazardous waste streams. Hospital staff in departments that routinely generate hazardous waste (such as those in the laboratories, oncology units, facilities management), are continually looking for ways to effectively manage risk and contain costs as they strive to stay in compliance with federal, state, and local regulations as well as TJC standards (21 refer specifically to hazardous materials).
Service raises awareness of total hazardous waste generated by hospitals
The Hazardous Waste service enables the acute care provider to manage this highly regulated waste stream with regularly scheduled service. This step reduces hospital expenses due to service optimization, contracting with a single provider and increasing hospital compliance.
Hazardous waste is a very small but heterogeneous waste stream that carries a significant risk to the environment and to the health of a community.
"Stericycle's proactive Hazardous Waste service is an efficient way for hospitals to have one partner with a clear view of how to stay in compliance, measure results and be environmentally conscious. We make managing hazardous healthcare waste simple so that hospital teams can do what they do best - focus on the patient," said Brent Arnold, Stericycle's corporate vice president of healthcare services.
Four Stericycle services make up comprehensive national agreement
The national agreement with Premier includes Stericycle's existing contracts for Regulated Medical Waste services and Pharmaceutical Waste Compliance. It also includes a new contract for Stericycle's Integrated Waste Stream Solutions that, with one provider, manages all 10 of a hospital's disparate waste streams for a sustainable solution.
About Premier Inc.
The Premier healthcare alliance is more than 2,300 U.S. hospitals and 67,000-plus other healthcare sites working together to improve healthcare quality and affordability. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has offices in San Diego, Philadelphia and Washington. Follow Premier on Twitter.
About Stericycle:
Lake Forest, IL-based Stericycle (NASDAQ: SRCL) is a leader in healthcare-related services that protect people and reduce risk. With more than 430,000 customers worldwide, Stericycle has operations in North America, Europe, and Latin America. Visit www.stericycle.com.
Safe Harbor Statement: Statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control (for example, general economic conditions). Our actual results could differ significantly from the results described in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include changes in governmental regulation of medical waste collection and treatment and increases in transportation and other operating costs, as well as the other factors described in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, past financial performance should not be considered a reliable indicator of future performance, and investors should not use historical trends to anticipate future results or trends. We make no commitment to disclose any subsequent revisions to forward-looking statements.
Contacts: |
|
For Stericycle: Kellee Johnson, 312-751-3959 |
|
SOURCE Stericycle Inc.
Share this article