Hospitals

Cleveland Clinic partner sells performance-boosting software

Earlier this year, Arizona-based Carefx Corp. licensed from Clinic spin off IntellisEPM the right to market and develop so-called “dashboards” that deliver information about how a hospital is performing on a wide range of measures, from quality of care to patient outcomes to scheduling.

A company that has licensed technology from a Cleveland Clinic spin off is supplying its business intelligence software to a consortium of more than 300 hospitals.

Earlier this year, Arizona-based Carefx Corp. licensed from Clinic spin off IntellisEPM the right to market and develop so-called “dashboards” that deliver information about how a hospital is performing  on a wide range of measures, from quality of care to patient outcomes to scheduling.

Now, Carefx has reached a deal to supply the dashboard software to University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of 107 academic medical centers and 233 of their affiliated hospitals, according to a statement from Carefx.

It’s unclear how many of those hospitals plan on implementing the software.

The business intelligence dashboards provide quick access to hospitals’ performance data and help guide executives’ decision making, according to Carefx. The move toward greater cost-consciousness and accountable care organizations in the healthcare industry is driving interest in the software, the company said.

The dashboards were originally developed for internal Cleveland Clinic use, but hospital officials realized the software could have wider market appeal, so they created a company called IntellisEPM to develop the technology, Chris Coburn, executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, told MedCity News in a June interview.

In May, Carefx announced an agreement to license IntellisEPM’s technology, though the spin off’s employees are still based in Cleveland, according to Coburn. Carefx is buying IntellisEPM’s assets in stages and eventually will own the company, he said.