Sterling Partners has acquired Q-Centrix LLC for an undisclosed amount.

Portsmouth, N.H.-based Q-Centrix provides outsourced health care data-collection services to acute-care hospitals. The company expects Sterling’s investment to help it grow.

There is a shift in health care laws caused by the Affordable Care Act, which creates regulatory and market incentives to accurately capture, report and improve quality measures, according to Dan Hosler, principal at Sterling Partners.

Sterling Partners, headquartered in Chicago, focuses on investing in small and middle market companies in the education, health care and business services sectors. The firm has more than $5 billion in capital under management. In November, Sterling Partners announced it was buying Innotrac Corp., which provides commerce services, for $109 million. In February, Sterling Partners portfolio company Desert NDT LLC bought T&K Inspection Inc. 

For more on the health care sector, see “Six Sizzling Sectors: Healthcare” and “ACA Reshuffles the Deck.”