Relias Learning Broadens Solutions Offering with Purchase of Clinical Assessments Leader, Advanced Practice Strategies

Latest acquisition expands position in acute care with almost 1,500 hospitals using Relias products

CARY, NC, April 5, 2017 – Relias Learning, a trusted partner in online analytics, assessments, and learning for the healthcare market, today announced the acquisition of Boston-based Advanced Practice Strategies (APS). The acquisition increases the company’s presence in the acute care market, while launching the company into the pre-hire assessments category.

APS provides deep, clinical assessment-driven training to physicians and nurses in the Obstetrics and Emergency Medicine departments of the hospital, and offers pre-hire assessments for nurses that help hospitals hire the right nurses for the right roles to provide higher quality care. The foundation of the APS platform is a proprietary assessment system that matches clinician assessment results with small pieces of targeted training, called “content snacks” that address areas of lower competency.

By adding the APS assessment tools to existing analytics and learning products, Relias now offers healthcare providers a solution that delivers a continuous “performance improvement” cycle.  This will allow clients to assign training to learners where they need it most, continuously improve performance against quality measures, and ultimately improve patient outcomes and reimbursement rates under value-based payment programs.

“With this acquisition, Relias furthers its’ position in acute care by adding sophisticated, highly clinical training for doctors and nurses who deliver babies, provide care for new moms, and provide emergency care,” explained Jim Triandiflou, CEO of Relias. “In addition, with the Prophecy pre-hire assessment tool, Relias adds a new product to our portfolio that helps hospitals place the right nurse for their organization. By combining pre-hire assessments with our core learning product, healthcare providers can be smarter about training, and as a result improve care and realize cost savings.”

APS has established a reputation as an innovative market leader with two unique products that improve performance:

• GNOSIS™ delivers individualized and prioritized training content to clinicians, allowing them to learn when they want, where they want, and only what they need. GNOSIS enables hospital leaders to focus limited resources on high-impact education for improving quality and patient safety. More than 20% of all OB clinicians in the U.S.are currently engageing with GNOSIS for Obstetrics.

• Prophecy™ is the nation’s only holistic assessment solution, designed by nurses for nurses, that combines unique scores for clinical, situational, and behavioral competencies. Hospital leaders receive rich data on the individual nurse – including gaps in technical knowledge, levels of critical thinking, and insights into personality traits.

“We are excited to unite with a company that shares our passion, values, and high level of commitment to clients,” said John Harrington, Founder and Chief Mission Officer of APS. “This is a wonderful opportunity to combine the strengths of two innovative organizations and expand our ability to create clinician-centric experiences with measurable clinical and financial impact. Joining the Relias family will help us to take GNOSIS and Prophecy to the next level.”

APS is the latest of a half-dozen acquisitions made by Relias over the past 12 months. The acquisitions are an integral part of a growth strategy to expand across the continuum of healthcare while also moving beyond training to combine analytics, assessments, and learning to help healthcare organization improve performance. In addition, Relias announced in 2016 that it planned to add 450 employees over five years at its Cary, NC headquarters.

About APS
Advanced Practice Strategies (APS) is a technology company that works with organizations to build the best patient care teams through our two assessment-based solutions Prophecy and GNOSIS. APS data-driven insights help the nation’s leading health systems reduce risk, costs and nurse vacancy so they can deliver safer, more consistent patient care.