May 26, 2026- Vizient® announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded a patent for the methodology underlying the Vizient Vulnerability Index™, a proprietary analytics tool designed to help healthcare organizations better understand the social and environmental factors that influence health outcomes and access to care at the neighborhood level.
The Vizient Vulnerability Index differs from traditional social vulnerability tools by incorporating a broader set of social drivers of health — including transportation access, healthcare access, food insecurity, housing and environmental conditions — to provide a more localized view of barriers affecting health outcomes and access to care. Operating at the census tract and ZIP-code level, the Index helps organizations identify where needs are concentrated within communities.
When paired with the Vizient Clinical Data Base, the Index helps organizations better understand how neighborhood-level barriers to care relate to patient quality outcomes and cost drivers across patient populations. The patented methodology reinforces Vizient’s continued investment in data-driven solutions that help healthcare organizations improve quality, operational performance and community health strategies.
In 2023, Vizient made the Vizient Vulnerability Index publicly accessible at no cost. Learn more about how the Vizient Vulnerability Index helps healthcare organizations analyze social drivers of health and community vulnerability.