Dive Brief:
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Salt Lake City analytics firm Health Catalyst announced a strategic partnership to further develop UPMC’s cost management tool and make it available to other hospitals and health systems.
- The first-of-its-kind agreement aims to help providers measure and interpret the actual cost of a patient’s care.
- It will speed adoption of best practices at UPMC facilities and elsewhere, the parties said.
Dive Insight:
Under the agreement, Health Catalyst will license and commercialize UPMC’s cost management technology, content, and related analytics while using its Enterprise Data Warehouse and analytics program to enhance the retrieval and aggregation of data from UPMC’s numerous information systems. Those employees who worked on the cost management tool will become Health Catalyst employees.
The UPMC system combines quality data with physician- and patient-specific cost data to improve care while bringing down costs. Since launching in 2014, UPMC says the number of open hysterectomies has dropped 30% system-wide, in favor of less invasive forms of surgery, reducing patient complications, lengths of stay, readmissions, and costs.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.