ECRI, a nonprofit healthcare quality and safety organization, has spun out its spend management and recall management solutions into an independent company with support from a strategic growth investment from Accel-KKR.
The new company, called Staritas, will focus on providing healthcare supply chain intelligence supported by technology-focused private equity, the company announced Tuesday. Accel-KKR specializes in software and technology-enabled businesses.
As a separate company, Staritas will focus on developing and delivering artificial intelligence-driven solutions that help healthcare organizations manage increasingly complex supply chains, executives said in a press release.
ECRI has been around for 60 years and is now dedicated to building resilient and safe health systems and evaluating the technologies used in those systems, nonprofit leaders said.
Financial terms of the PE investment were not disclosed.
“For 50 years, ECRI’s award-winning spend management solutions have helped healthcare supply chain leaders navigate supply disruptions with resilience, save millions of dollars, and benchmark purchasing decisions using the industry’s most comprehensive independent data set,” ECRI President and CEO Marcus Schabacher, MD, said in a statement. “Now, by spinning out Staritas powered by Accel-KKR, we will enable healthcare supply chain leaders to realize even greater value from their platform by strengthening the power behind the data, improving the user experience, and accelerating innovation.”
Healthcare organizations now face rising costs, margin pressures, supply chain disruptions and increased complexity, and are often making decisions based on fragmented information, including supplier pricing without benchmarks and investments without a clear picture of total cost, ECRI executives said.
Staritas claims to have the largest independent source of information on healthcare supply and capital datasets with advanced analytics capabilities and says it works with organizations in over 70 countries to understand market trends and better manage supply chains. Staritas, which has been a division of ECRI for 50 years and is now an independent company, said it works with 90% of the nation’s top hospitals and health systems to identify $13 billion in annual savings opportunities.
“We are excited to partner with ECRI and support the launch of Staritas, a new company with a 50-year pioneering track record in expenditure and recall management,” Park Durrett, managing director of Accel-KKR, said in a statement. “Staritas’ unparalleled independent datasets and domain expertise create a strong foundation for growth and customer impact. We pride ourselves on building on Staritas’ heritage and maintaining the transparency, independence, and objectivity that define our work.”
The additional investment from Accel-KKR will be used to enhance platform capabilities, executives said in a press release.
“The data, solutions and people that currently make up Staritas are among the best in the field of spend and recall management. We plan to continue raising the bar of service to healthcare supply chain leaders with next-generation platforms and technology advancements that help protect margins, deliver quality care and increase resiliency,” said Emmett O’Gara, CEO of Staritas.
ECRI is an independent nonprofit organization focused on health care safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness, and plans to strengthen its focus on patient safety and clinical evidence.
“This move is not a departure, but an effort to deepen ECRI’s focus on patient safety, clinical evidence, and system-level change across health care,” Schabacker said. “ECRI’s services and solutions are now dedicated to building resilient and safe health systems and evaluating the technologies used in those systems, backed by new investments and initiatives to bring about transformation.”
“With a strategic shift, ECRI is investing at an unprecedented level in a team of experts, unique data assets, and advanced capabilities that enable healthcare organizations to embed safety into their culture, operations, and systems — not as a one-time initiative, but as a foundation for permanent self-reinforcement,” he said.
Despite decades of national efforts, patient safety in the United States remains characterized by high rates of preventable harm.
“One in four hospitalized patients has an adverse event, and nearly a quarter of these are preventable. This is tragic and unacceptable,” said Dr. Derendra Kommara, ECRI Chief Medical Officer. Said. “Through this strategic move, ECRI is now focused on improving patient safety. We plan to build on our tradition of advancing evidence-based medicine and expand solutions that can transform healthcare organizations.”
