Royal Philips Electronics today announced that it was chosen for a new 33-month contract by Premier Purchasing Partners, LP, the group purchasing unit of Premier Inc.

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today announced that it was chosen for a new 33-month contract by Premier Purchasing Partners, LP, the group purchasing unit of Premier Inc. The new agreement, effective April 1, 2008, provides Premier's more than 1,600 member hospitals and 51,000 additional healthcare sites with access to contracts for Philips Xcelera PACS for Cardiology and Philips iSite PACS for Radiology.

Premier's IT Services Committee, which is comprised of representatives from 18 Premier owner organizations, along with a multi-disciplinary task force with representatives from Premier's Cardiovascular and Imaging Committees, completed an exhaustive review of the suppliers in the Enterprise Image Management Solutions (EIMS) marketplace in 2007. As the Committee reviewed and compared Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) vendors, they considered multiple factors, including corporate stability, breadth and depth of products, services and support, multi-modality imaging capabilities, overall functionality, integration, life cycle, and cost. Considering the specified criteria and evaluation activities, in comparison with other potential suppliers in this category, the Premier IT Services Committee awarded a contract to Philips.

"Premier viewed our industry-leading cardiology and radiology solutions, including our unique business model for our Radiology PACS solution, as ones that many of its members would embrace," said Eli Rapaich, vice president of sales, Healthcare Informatics, for Philips Healthcare. "For example, our ability to build flexibility into the Radiology PACS agreement, taking into consideration the member’s commitment to volume, contract length, capital, and other contract expenditures, allows us to customize a leading-edge solution to meet individual member needs."

Premier Imaging Committee member, Merle Peterson, director of Medical Imaging, Kettering Medical Center (Kettering, Ohio) stated; "We're very pleased that Philips worked with Premier to create an opportunity that affords even hospitals with limited individual negotiating power the ability to acquire advanced technology." Mr. Peterson also noted that having both the Philips Xcelera PACS and Philips iSite PACS solutions on the Premier contract will help Premier members streamline their evaluation and purchasing processes. "Knowing that Premier has done the legwork and pre-qualified Philips as a leading supplier of comprehensive image and information management solutions for cardiology and radiology instills confidence throughout the decision-making process."

In addition to Philips iSite PACS and Philips Xcelera PACS solutions, Philips Healthcare is on contract with Premier for CT, MRI, Molecular Imaging, Nuclear Medicine, PET and PET CT, RAD, RF, Surgery, and Cardiovascular products. Philips is also on contract for all ultrasound systems and nearly all patient monitoring products.