Premier, Inc. on Tuesday announced an agreement to acquire Salt Lake City-based TheraDoc, a Hospira subsidiary that develops clinical surveillance technology, for $117 million in cash.

[See also: TheraDoc targets infection detection, control]

Both organizations offer analytics and real-time electronic clinical surveillance. Premier's SafetyAdvisor tool collects patient safety data, monitors it and enables clinical pharmacists and infection preventionists to be notified with automatic alerts. TheraDoc will broaden Premier's ability to support infection prevention and drug therapy surveillance, officials say.

"The addition of TheraDoc propels Premier to the top position in the clinical surveillance market, significantly strengthening our ability to help health systems monitor and protect patients from infections, harmful drug interactions and other adverse events, crucial capabilities in today's world of performance-based reimbursement," said Susan DeVore, president and CEO of Premier, in a press statement.

[See also: Premier forecasts new wave for ACOs]

"Longer term, we expect the addition of TheraDoc will enable us to create a next-generation predictive safety solution built on Premier's integrated technology platform," she added.

Combined, Premier and Theradoc will offer clinical surveillance expertise to some 1,000 facilities – 400 of which do not have a current relationship with Premier, officials note, enabling safety alert capabilities that go beyond those of electronic health records alone.

"Considering that only 50 percent of providers have invested in electronic clinical surveillance, our increased scope already addresses a largely untapped marketplace," said said France Pitera, who is currently vice president, clinical information technology, Hospira, in a statement.

"We will leverage the collective resources of TheraDoc and deep analytics capabilities available through the PremierConnect platform to continue developing a broad suite of quality and safety products in a cutting-edge SaaS model," she added.