The Charlotte, N.C.-based Premier healthcare alliance has partnered with Phytel, a Dallas, Tx.-based health IT vendor, to automate population health services, helping health systems deliver safer and lower-cost care across the continuum.

A comprehensive population health suite allows providers to manage patient care more efficiently, with a better understanding of outcomes and total cost. This emphasizes care delivered outside the hospital using predictive analytics to profile an entire population, not just those who have been treated. The intelligence garnered can more effectively support emerging care delivery and risk management models through health reform as providers participating in accountable care organizations (ACOs) are reimbursed based on quality and cost overall.

“The integration of technologies that deliver real-time, predictive decision support is integral for disease and care management, and system-wide quality improvement,” Keith J. Figlioli, Premier senior vice president of healthcare informatics, said in a statement. “Combining Premier and Phytel information, providers will access a full suite of automated population health intelligence to eliminate variation, increase patient engagement, improve care coordination and keep people healthy across the inpatient and outpatient continuum.”

Premier, an alliance of 2,800 hospitals and 93,000 other care sites, integrates payor, provider and supply chain data in healthcare’s largest technology and social networking platform, PremierConnect, an industry first. The platform links providers nationwide with electronic health record (EHR) patient data on one in four U.S. hospital discharges, evidence-based best practices from 2.5 million daily clinical transactions, $40 billion worth of annual purchasing data, and each other.