Banner Health Joins the Healthcare Management Council Healthcare Performance Improvement Partnership

(NEEDHAM, MA) May 5, 2005 — Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the country with over 20 acute care hospitals, six long term care centers, and an assortment of other services in nine western and Midwestern states. Employing around 22,000 employees, it's one of the country's largest employers.

In a continued effort to stay competitive in an increasingly tight healthcare market, Banner Health has joined the IHC, Sentara, OSF, and Inova systems in turning to The Healthcare Management Council, Inc. (HMC) to provide benchmarks to facilitate their performance improvement. Eleven Banner hospitals will start their benchmarks over the next few months, and the others will migrate to HMC as their contracts with other benchmarking vendors end.

The Healthcare Management Council, Inc., is a hospital benchmarking, performance improvement, and knowledge management company that partners with healthcare organizations to generate, execute, and support hospital cost reduction plans.

Learn more at http://www.HMC-Benchmarks.com