A Medical Device Daily

Premier Purchasing Partners (San Diego, California) reported that new agreements for regional anesthesia trays — used to provide supplies for spinal and epidural pain management and anesthesia – have been awarded to Smiths Medical ASD (Keene, New Hampshire) and B. Braun Medical (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania).

The 36-month agreements, effective Feb 1, offer improved pricing to acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier alliance, it said.

Serving 1,700 hospitals and more than 43,000 other healthcare sites, Premier bills itself the largest healthcare alliance in the U. S. dedicated to improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care. Premiere is owned by not-for-profit hospitals.

In other grants/contracts news: Kaidara Software (Los Altos, California) reported that Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California) has selected the Kaidara Advisor knowledge management system to develop a central knowledgebase for its technical support operations. The initial Kaidara deployment is at Beckman’s Immunoassay division with options in the agreement to include future deployments in other Beckman Coulter divisions.

Kaidara develops software solutions designed to harness the experience and know-how within an organization to streamline resolution of complex questions and problems and reduce costs associated with delivering customer service.

Beckman Coulter makes biomedical testing instrument systems, tests and supplies designed to simplify and automate laboratory processes.