HealthStream has snapped up a Texas company that lets hospital workers and managers track licenses and ongoing education.

Cummins Station-based HealthStream says it will pay up to $4.3 million for Austin-based Decision Critical, which markets software that stores licenses, educational records and credentials of workers. Employees can manage their profiles while their managers can massage their teams' data for regulatory requirements and career development. HealthStream executives, who work with more than half of the country's acute-care hospitals, expect Decision Critical's services — branded as Critical Portfolio — to be "a valuable add-on platform extension."

Decision Critical founder and CEO Ken Dion is joining HealthStream as vice president of nursing informatics. Dion sits on the board of trustees of the Foundation of the National Student Nurses’ Association.

"Critical Portfolio has been particularly popular with the outstanding hospitals that have achieved Magnet designation as well as those on the Magnet journey," Dion said, referring to a prestigious American Nurses Credentialing Center program that recognizes nursing excellence. "I am, therefore, delighted to join forces with HealthStream, an industry leader, to combine this solution with HealthStream’s innovative product suite for talent management and thereby enriching the offering to the largest online hospital community of its type."

Shares of HealthStream (Ticker: HSTM) are up about 1.4 percent in mid-morning trading. Year to date, they've climbed more than 40 percent.