WARWICK – As COVID-19 cases continue to surge, two major players in the health care industry are joining forces to deliver medical equipment faster.
Warwick-based CME Corp., the largest health care equipment distributor in the U.S., announced Tuesday two new contracts with HealthTrust Purchasing Group LP, a leading health care performance optimization and group purchasing organization.
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HealthTrust, which is based in Nashville, Tenn., has $45 billion in purchasing power.
K.C. Meleski, CME’s vice president of sales, told a Providence Business News reporter Tuesday night that it would be difficult to identify the dollar amount of the contracts. However, he said out of the approximately 5,200 hospitals in the country, HealthTrust owns and is affiliated with at least 1,600.
Specifically, the contracts are designated for HealthTrust’s Acute Care & National Surgery Center Group and Affiliates & Non-Acute Care Facilities & Affiliates Unit.
The new contracts include distribution for capital purchases from CME’s portfolio, according to the announcement. This includes “white-glove” services covering a facility’s needs from start to finish, which includes the receiving, inspecting, warehousing, assembling and installing of equipment.
One contract is for three years, while the other contract includes a two-year option to extend, creating a potential five-year deal for the Rhode Island company.
Meleski said the two contracts will give HealthTrust members access to CME’s ability to provide savings and efficiencies on medical equipment and delivery services throughout the country.
“We’re excited their members now have access to our nationwide best-in-class, direct-to-site white-glove delivery services, which allows health care providers to reduce costs by consolidating and streamlining the logistics required to manage their needs,” said Meleski.
CME’s news comes as the company announced Nov. 10 that it was awarded a $5 million contract with the state of Michigan to provide medical products and services for its state-run veterans’ facilities and other state organizations. Contract items available included the purchase and delivery of products from CME’s portfolio of more than 2 million items from over 2,000 manufacturers.
In August, the company signed a five-year, $49.5 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to make thousands of medical products available to a wide range of military services.
In June of this year, CME reported a 60% increase for its second-quarter earnings. Meleski said part of the boost came from helping local agencies set up the COVID-19 field hospitals in Cranston and Providence. CME’s third quarter, which ended on Sept. 30, increased an additional 4% from the previous quarter. Meleski said it was the “greatest quarter in the history of the company.”
Because HealthTrust’s membership includes five of the country’s top seven integrated delivery networks, Meleski said that he is confident that these two new contracts will help facilitate the company’s surging growth.
“CME Corp. has tripled in size in five years,” said Meleski, who said the company has been hiring, and will continue to hire, additional personnel in Warwick to fulfill the needs of HealthTrust. “And we are looking to grow just as fast in the coming years.”
Alexa Gagosz is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Gagosz@PBN.com. You may also follow her on Twitter at @AlexaGagosz.
