N🟁N

Patient Care Technology Systems: Christiana Care Selects Enterprise-Wide Asset Management Software From PCTS

  //house-home.news-articles.net/content/2009/08/2 .. se-wide-asset-management-software-from-pcts.html
  Published in House and Home on Thursday, August 27th 2009 at 13:18 GMT, Last Modified on 2009-08-27 13:18:10 by Market Wire
          ^{🞛 This publication is a summary or evaluation of another publication}

CHARLOTTE, NC and WILMINGTON, DE--(Marketwire - August 27, 2009) - [ Patient Care Technology Systems ] (PCTS), a subsidiary of [ Consulier Engineering, Inc. ] (NASDAQ: [ CSLR ]), today announced that [ Christiana Care ] Health System, Wilmington, DE has selected the company's [ Amelior Tracker ]® system to automatically track and manage the hospital's assets throughout their two facilities. Christiana Care is one of the mid-Atlantic region's largest not-for-profit healthcare providers including Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, and Wilmington Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. Together, the hospitals have over 1,100 licensed hospital beds, support over 42,000 surgical procedures and admit more than 55,000 patients annually. Christiana Care will integrate the Awarepoint Real-time Location System (RTLS) to provide automatic location data capture to the Amelior Tracker end-user software. [ Awarepoint ] serves its U.S. healthcare customers through its exclusive distribution partnership with [ Skytron ].

Christiana Care has been a workflow automation partner with PCTS since 2004. Throughout the last five years, Christiana Care has implemented Amelior EDTracker® in both Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital. The software's impact has allowed the combined emergency departments (ED) with over 160,000 ED visits a year, to achieve 100% real-time location of patients, as well as decrease wait time and increase patient and staff satisfaction.

Despite a continued census increase, the overall emergency department length of stay (LOS) decreased by an average of 36 minutes for admitted patients and 45 minutes for patients treated and released. The average LOS for low acuity patients reduced from more than 2 hours to less than 60 minutes. Low acuity patients leaving without treatment (LWOT) decreased from 4.5 percent to 2.5 percent. Related to reductions in key wait time intervals as well as patient perception of how well they were kept informed, patient satisfaction levels among low acuity patients rose from the 73rd percentile to the 99th percentile on the Press Ganey scale. Equally important, staff satisfaction improved with respect to knowledge of patient location, diagnostic results availability, and emergency room status. Staff safety was enhanced through the staff/patient encounter summary for contamination and infectious agents. Overall, the implementation of Amelior EDTracker has contributed to strong staff retention.

Installation of the enterprise-wide asset management system will focus on optimizing the utilization of mobile assets, decreasing lost and/or stolen assets, and eliminating unnecessary future replacement investments. The Amelior Tracker solution is part of the Amelior Enterprise Visibility Suite™ which comprises department to facility-wide software solutions and services designed to more efficiently and safely orchestrate patient care through the real-time visualization of patient flow. Hospitals can scale their implementations by the entities they wish to track (movable medical equipment, patients, staff), purpose (asset management, patient flow, infection control) and by the scope of hospital workflow (acute care, inpatient floors, outpatient services, enterprise-wide).

At Christiana Care, PCTS will implement an active-RFID locating network from business partner Awarepoint who provides location awareness through a [ ZigBee ]-based wireless sensor network utilizing sensors which are deployed in standard electrical outlets. This 100% wireless infrastructure enables quick installation without disrupting patient care throughout the entire enterprise. Awarepoint tags broadcast low power radio messages which enable users to quickly locate specific equipment or people and provide information about their movement and status. The installation will provide true hospital-wide awareness -- not only room-level, but persistent accuracy across the entire hospital footprint.

"Christiana Care's utilization of the PCTS automatic tracking and workflow solutions have been critical to our mission of providing a better way to deliver care over the last five years," said Alan Lipschultz, Director of Clinical Engineering for Christiana Care. "It was a natural choice for us to reach out to PCTS in regards to an ever increasing need to manage our valuable assets throughout our two facilities. An accurate, real-time visualization of our assets will provide true hospital-wide awareness. I'm confident that the system will improve workflow, assist in regulatory compliance and provide cost reduction opportunities."

"We look forward to our continued, successful partnership with Christiana Care. Christiana Care continues to be the gold standard in their implementation of real-time workflow solutions for health care facilities and their commitment to innovation and quality care," said Tony Marsico, president and CEO of PCTS. "The return on investment Christiana Care will realize by increasing utilization of their existing equipment, reductions in rentals and shrinkage (lost, stolen, misplaced equipment), offers the potential for tremendous bottom-line savings."

About Christiana Care Health System

Christiana Care Health System is one of the country's largest health care providers, serving more than 500,000 patients yearly, placing it as the 14th leading hospital in the nation and 9th on the East Coast in terms of admissions. A not-for-profit teaching hospital affiliated with Thomas Jefferson Medical College, Christiana Care is recognized as a regional center for excellence in cardiology, cancer and women's health services, as well as for its Level-I trauma care and Level-3 neonatal intensive care (both highest capability).

Christiana Hospital is the only Level I trauma center between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Christiana Care includes two hospitals with 1,100 patient beds, a home health care service, preventive medicine, rehabilitation services, a network of primary care physicians and an extensive range of outpatient services.

With more than 10,000 employees, Christiana Care is the largest private employer in Delaware and the 10th largest employer in the Philadelphia region. In 2008 Christiana Care had more than $1.7 billion in total patient revenue and provided the community with $37.7 million of free care and medicine. Find more information at [ www.christianacare.org ]

About Patient Care Technology Systems

Patient Care Technology Systems, a subsidiary of Consulier Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ CSLR ]), helps health care providers to improve patient flow, increase capacity and improve patient and staff safety by visualizing the real-time location and status of patients and equipment throughout their facility. Proven return on investment in high turnover, high acuity departments such as the emergency department and perioperative suite where PCTS solutions have supported over 5 million patient visits with automatic tracking and emergency department documentation solutions. The Amelior Enterprise Visibility Suite™ is compatible with all leading locating technologies including active-RFID, infrared, ultrasound, ultra-wideband, Wi-Fi and ZigBee. PCTS customers have been recognized nationally for improvements in efficiency and clinical excellence. For more information, visit [ www.pcts.com ].

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. PCTS and CSLR caution you that any statements contained in this press release which are not strictly historical statements constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those related to PCTS's and CSLR's expectations regarding continued business growth. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements (copies of which may be obtained at the SEC's website at: [ http://www.sec.gov ]) and could impact the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. PCTS and CSLR disclaim any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in PCTS and CSLR's expectations, or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.