- Designed to Improve Quality in US Hospitals Through New Patient Safety Software

CHICAGO and LONDON, Dec. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- UHC, an alliance of 116 US academic medical centers and 283 of their affiliated hospitals in the US, and Datix, a UK-based provider of patient safety technology solutions, announced the details of recent additions to their new extensive patient safety suite, UHC Safety Intelligence Powered by Datix.

UHC Safety Intelligence™ is designed to increase patient safety and improve the quality of care in academic medical centers across the United States. Adding to UHC's currently available adverse event, claims and complaints modules, four new patient safety software modules are being introduced to the suite:

• Risk Register: Records risks at every level of an organization to help hospitals prioritize and develop actions for performance improvement.
• Safety Alerts: Helps disseminate communications from national public health organizations, as well as communicating both internal security alerts and those from other organizations.
• Accreditation: Ensures compliance with national, local, and self-generated standards to provide a clear and comprehensive picture of an organization's strengths and opportunities for improvement.
• Hotspots: Identifies and alerts hospitals to areas where high rates of safety-related incidents may be a cause for concern.

The collaboration between the two companies, UHC and Datix, was announced in September 2012 and is intended to provide UHC members with access to additional patient safety information that can help improve overall care quality.

"UHC is committed to providing our members the latest in patient safety and performance improvement," said Irene M. Thompson, UHC's president and chief executive officer. "Datix has interpreted our vision to help members attain leadership in health care through innovative safety technology in order to achieve optimal quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness."

"The strategic collaboration between UHC and Datix has opened the doors to a wealth of possibilities for UHC's patient safety strategy," said Jonathan Hazan, Datix's chief executive officer. "By working together, we offer an unrivalled package for hospitals to find ways to continuously improve patient safety."

One of the partnership's key areas was the expansion of the UHC Patient Safety Net®—one of the largest repositories of patient safety event data and a unique analytical and benchmarking tool—to include information about claims and complaints.

Thompson noted in the partnership's announcement, "We selected Datix because it is a global leader in safety and risk management solutions with a proven, long-standing commitment to advancing patient safety."

About UHC
UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care. Based in Chicago, Ill, UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 116 academic medical center and 283 affiliated hospital members through its renowned programs and services in the areas of comparative data and analytics, performance improvement, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy.

UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Formed in 1984, UHC's membership includes a majority of the nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States. For more information, visit uhc.edu.

About Datix
Datix has been a pioneer in the field of patient safety since 1986 and is today a leading supplier of software for patient safety, risk management, incident and adverse event reporting. Datix aims to help healthcare organisations build a culture and practice that drives excellence in patient safety. It recruits and retains people committed to the healthcare sector and continually invests in its software and services to ensure that it integrates best practice and learning.

Datix is focused on the health and social care sector. Its customers include public and private hospitals, primary care providers, GP surgeries, mental health and ambulance service providers. Its clients also include organisations delivering care home and domiciliary care services. Within the UK this includes more than 70% of the National Health Service. Internationally the Datix client base is growing rapidly and includes large scale deployments in Canada and the USA as well as clients in Europe, Australia and the Middle East.

Datix is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

To learn more, visit www.datix.co.uk