Dues for membership in the Advisory Board Company that allows the Hospital to use the Oncology Roundtable; a web-based analytic platform used by the Hospital?s Oncology department to analyze operational and financial metrics together. The platform is used to compare patient-centered care by oncology to improve standardization for efficiency and operations. The platform has benchmarking tools to compare not only supply costs but operational metrics across hospitals nationally. These benchmarks help in improving the quality of care provided by oncology. It assists with program development, resolve problems and develop service line strategies to provide better patient outcomes.

This purchase is exempt from the usual selection processes of the Procurement Code because the procurement expenditure is for membership in professional, academic, research, or athletic organizations on behalf of a public institution of higher education, an employee of a public institution of higher education, or a student at a public institution of higher education. (30 ILCS 500 / 1-13(b)(1)) Without access to these specific services the hospital would not be able to improve the quality of care and better patient outcomes that in turn would drive patients else where and result in a loss of revenue to the Hospital.