LeanTaaS acquires Hospital IQ, merged company touts $1B in value

Mohan Giridharadas, LeanTaaS founder and CEO

LeanTaaS is getting bigger.

The company announced Tuesday it has acquired Hospital IQ, a company that provides automation solutions for health systems. LeanTaaS, based in Santa Clara, California, provides software solutions to help hospitals expand their capacity and manage patient flow.

LeanTaaS said the transaction creates “the largest AI-powered hospital operations software provider in the healthcare technology industry.”

With the deal, the combined company has more than $1 billion in value and now is engaged with more than 180 health systems in the United States, LeanTaaS said.

“The strategic combination of LeanTaaS and Hospital IQ unites the two best companies in hospital operations at a time of profound industry need,” Mohan Giridharadas, LeanTaaS founder and CEO, said in a statement.

“Every health system in the country has an urgent need to improve the utilization of both staff and assets to improve patient access,” he said. “By joining forces, we will be able to offer our customers an unparalleled platform for optimizing their operations and improving patient care.”

(See our recent interview with LeanTaaS President Sanjeev Agrawal from the HLTH Conference in Las Vegas. The story continues below.)

• Read more: LeanTaaS aims to gain strength in hospital market

LeanTaaS and Hospital IQ even share similar approaches when it comes to names. LeanTaaS uses the name “iQueue” for its AI-powered software solutions to help hospitals manage their patient flow.

LeanTaaS is providing its cloud-based iQueue solutions to several large health systems, including CommonSpirit, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NewYork-Presbyterian, Penn Medicine, Yale New Haven Health and others.

The company offers software so hospitals can schedule more patients in operating rooms and infusion centers, and more recently, to boost in-patient capacity. LeanTaaS leaders liken their solutions to getting more passengers on the plane.

Rich Krueger, CEO of Hospital IQ, said the merged company will help hospitals unlock their potential to improve operations. The executives touted their ability to help hospitals improve revenues and address staffing shortages.

“Our teams share the same values — caring deeply about improving healthcare access, quality, and efficiency for everyone,” Krueger said in a statement. “We are excited to work alongside the LeanTaaS team as we continue to forge ahead on a joint mission to make a profound, positive impact on capacity, thus improving the staff and patient experience.”

Hospital IQ is known for automating workflows for inpatient management and surgery, and has partnerships with Oracle Cerner, Altera Digital Health and Siemens Healthineers.

• Read more: Investors expect more mergers in healthcare and life sciences in 2023

Sanjeev Agrawal, president and chief operating officer of LeanTaaS, recently told Chief Healthcare Executive that he’s been amazed at the company’s growth, even during the pandemic.

“The velocity which we have grown right through COVID has been just exceptional,” Agrawal said in an interview at the HLTH Conference in Las Vegas in November. “In many ways, we were solving a problem that became even more apparent when COVID hit, because of the constraints of in-person capacity, constraints in getting OR volume back.”

“Every hospital we know is facing tremendous amounts of financial pressure,” Agrawal said. “They’re also facing this unheard of labor shortage. And we happen to be in this position when we’re solving both of these problems.”

LeanTaaS received a boost last year when Bain Capital Private Equity, the Boston-based investment firm, acquired a majority stake in the company last year. Insight Partners and Goldman Sachs both retain stakes in LeanTaaS.

In addition to improving hospital finances and operations, Agrawal said boosting capacity offers the potential to improve patient care. If patients can schedule surgeries more quickly, they have a better chance of avoiding complications, he said.

“This was the little old LeanTaaS, the little engine that could, five years ago,” Agrawal told Chief Healthcare Executive in November. “It’s amazing to watch this journey.”