Press Release
Versus Technology, Inc.
Announces Expansion of Real-time Location System to Include Anesthesia
Clinic at PeaceHealth RiverBend Campus
(Traverse City, Michigan, January 28, 2009) – Versus Technology,
Inc. today announces a successful implementation and expansion of
Enterprise VISion™, a wireless real-time location system (RTLS), at the new
Sacred Heart Anesthesia Clinic located in Springfield, Oregon. This infrared
(IR) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) RTLS accurately tracks patients
and equipment, documents patient visit milestones (including interactions with
staff), and provides alerts to caregivers to notify staff when the patient is
ready for the next stage of care. This automated patient flow improves overall
efficiency and coordination of the patient’s presurgical visit and allows staff
to see more patients by ensuring that patients are seen by the right caregiver
at the right time.
The Anesthesia Clinic at RiverBend employs 15 clinical staff and
sees over 60 patients per day. Whereas the old clinic was limited to eight
rooms and often produced bottlenecks and long waits for patients, the new
Anesthesia Clinic has 18 rooms and uses VISion to manage the higher patient
volume. Visual representation of patient progression on Enterprise and
Floorplan views in the VISion software aids patient flow and provides real-time
communication of patient status to caregivers. Questions that are easily
answered through VISion and departmental processes include:
·
Have labs been ordered and if so, have they been drawn?
·
Has the EKG been completed?
·
Is the nurse in the room?
·
Has the nurse completed the assessment?
·
Is the patient ready to see the anesthesiologist?
Being able “see” their patients and their visit status in the
Anesthesia Clinic allows the physicians and anesthesiologists to prepare and
adjust their schedules as needed—a benefit that was immediately recognized as
the Anesthesia Clinic is physically separated from Sacred Heart Medical Center
at RiverBend building.
Here, in addition to safely and accurately identifying the
real-time location of patients, staff, and assets, the Anesthesia Clinic
utilizes patient tracking to reduce manual data entry through automation of
room status (patient presence), testing status (in-progress, ordered, or
complete), patient visit status (what has been completed), and wait time
alerts. “Automating manual tasks is a huge benefit for departments that are
required to time stamp patient progressions and document staff interactions
with patients,” says Paul Timmerman, VP of Business Development of Versus
Technology. “And this is where Versus excels—completing those tasks and
automating additional events or alerts to improve patient flow and
communication.” The Versus IR and Active RFID patient and asset tracking system
is exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association and is a key
component of their Patient Flow Platform—which includes a select group of
vendors that provide proven solutions to enhance patient flow and improve
patient safety.
The Anesthesia Clinic will also capture and time-stamp all
milestones related to clinic patient visits, including overall length of stay,
time to treatment, treatment time, and time together, etc., to allow for
reporting on individual patients or aggregate day or month statistics. The
Anesthesia Clinic is the fourth PeaceHealth site to utilize the Versus tracking
system, but their first clinic. Other PeaceHealth sites using the Versus
hospital tracking system include Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend
(Springfield, OR), Sacred Heart Medical Center University District (Eugene,
OR), and St. Joseph Medical Center (Bellingham, WA).
About Sacred Heart Medical
Center
Sacred Heart Medical Center is
one of the largest hospitals between Portland and San Francisco and a regional
referral center serving as a Level II trauma center for an eight-county region.
Key services for the nonprofit hospital include the Oregon Heart & Vascular
Institute, Neurosciences Institute with a Gamma Knife Center, Gerontology
Institute, a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and specialized surgical services.
Sacred Heart Medical Center has two campuses: RiverBend in Springfield, Oregon,
and University District, located in neighboring Eugene, Oregon. For more
information, visit the RiverBend online press kit at www.peacehealth.org/newsroom.
About Versus Technology, Inc.
For
nearly 20 years, Versus Technology, Inc. has maintained the leadership position
in the development and sale of context-aware real-time location systems (RTLS) used for enterprise patient tracking, bed management and asset
tracking to improve patient
flow and caregiver/patient
communications in hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities. Versus also
develops dual infrared and Active RFID tags and other location tracking
hardware to make locating systems more precise, security systems more
intelligent, nurse call systems automatic, and hospital asset tracking systems
more efficient. Indoor positioning through Versus’ RTLS enhances existing
hospital software and patient care systems with real-time, reliable bed-level
location information. The patented Versus IR and Active RFID patient and asset tracking system is exclusively endorsed by
the American Hospital Association and is a key component of their Patient Flow
Platform—which includes a select group of vendors that provide proven solutions
to enhance patient flow and improve patient safety. (www.versustech.com; Pink Sheets: VSTI.PK)
Safe Harbor Provision
This
document may contain forward-looking statements relating to future events, such
as the development of new products, the commencement of production, or the
future financial performance of the Company. These statements fall within the
meaning of forward-looking information as defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to a number of
important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially including, but not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental,
and technological factors affecting the Company’s markets and market growth
rates, products and their rate of commercialization, services, prices and
adequacy of financing, and other factors. The Company undertakes no obligation
to update, amend, or clarify forward-looking statements, whether because of new
information, future events, or otherwise.
###
Media
Contact: Investor/Analyst
Contact:
Versus Technology, Inc. Versus Technology,
Inc.
Stephanie Bertschy, Director of Marketing Joseph Winowiecki, Chief
Financial Officer
877.983.7787 231.946.5868
skb@versustech.com joew@versustech.com
