DebMed Awarded Electronic Hand Hygiene Monitoring Systems Category Agreement with Premier, Inc.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- DebMed has been awarded a group purchasing agreement in the Hand Hygiene Monitoring Systems category with Premier, Inc. Effective October 1, 2014, the new three-year agreement allows healthcare organizations that are Premier members access to the DebMed Group Monitoring System™ (GMS). The DebMed GMS is the world's first electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) "Five Moments for Hand Hygiene" and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) hand hygiene guidelines.

"As healthcare worker hand hygiene remains at a staggeringly low 40 percent, there is much work to be done to provide safer and cleaner environments for hospital patients and staff," said Heather McLarney, vice president of marketing, DebMed. "Our contract with Premier allows us to reach hospitals across the country in search of the best way to track and improve hand hygiene to ultimately achieve better patient care. And as the only electronic monitoring solution available that monitors by the World Health Organization Five Moments and CDC hand hygiene standards, we offer something not previously available through Premier until now."

The complete suite of DebMed products available include:

• The DebMed GMS: Electronically tracks staff hand hygiene activity and provides hospitals with timely and actionable hand hygiene compliance data to help organizations create and sustain quality and safety initiatives.
• Point-of-Care Dispenser: The DebMed GMS compliance tracking system includes specialized point-of-care dispensers which provide easy access to hand sanitizer within the immediate patient zone. The dispenser supplements the standard wall-mounted units, providing bedside accessibility that will enable healthcare facilities to more readily comply with the WHO Five Moments and CDC guidelines for hand hygiene.
• Product-Agnostic Monitoring: The DebMed electronic hand hygiene monitoring system is also compatible with any soap or sanitizer dispenser. This enables hospitals and other healthcare facilities that may have a preference for one hand hygiene product over another to implement the most reliable method of electronic hand hygiene monitoring while still using the skin care products of their choice.

For more information, visit www.debmed.com.

About Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc. is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,000 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 other providers to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier's news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Foursquare and Premier's blog for more information about the company.

About DebMed®
DebMed is the healthcare program of the Deb Group. The DebMed program offers innovative hand hygiene products, electronic monitoring technology, and improvement tools to support hand hygiene compliance.  The DebMed® GMS™ (Group Monitoring System), winner of the 2013 Frost & Sullivan Hand Hygiene Solutions New Product Innovation Award, is the world's first group monitoring system to report hand hygiene compliance rates based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) "Five Moments for Hand Hygiene" and to date has recorded more than 35 million hand hygiene events.  The system is being utilized in a four year, multi-site research project being conducted by the Columbia University School of Nursing and funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). For more information, visit www.debmed.com.

About Deb Group
Possessing international scale and strong local market presence, Deb Group provides innovative skin care programs for all types of workplace and public environments, spanning industrial, commercial, healthcare and food sectors.  Headquartered in the United Kingdom with US operations based in Charlotte, NC, Deb Group is comprised of 21 companies operating in 16 countries.  For more information, visit www.debgroup.com.

SOURCE DebMed