Press Release
Versus Technology, Inc.
Announces Successful go-live of Real-time locating system at Sacred Heart
Medical Center at RiverBend
(Traverse City, Michigan, September 16, 2008) – Versus
Technology, Inc. (Versus), today announces a successful implementation of
Enterprise VISion, a wireless, rules-based real-time locating system (RTLS), at
Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, Oregon. This
1.2-million-square-foot state-of-the-art facility includes the infrastructure
for patient and asset tracking as well as automated nurse registry and call
cancellation to be used at both the RiverBend facility and five-story Oregon
Heart and Vascular Institute.
Already in place at Sacred Heart Medical Center University
District (Eugene, OR) and St. Joseph Hospital (Bellingham, WA), the Versus
infrared and radio frequency identification RTLS is considered essential to
help protect patient safety and improve patient flow, especially within the
facility’s emergency department. “It allows us to track you and your care to
assure that our physicians and nurses can give you the fastest, most efficient
care possible,” says Jill Hoggard Green, Chief Operating Officer of
PeaceHealth’s Oregon Region.
Here, in addition to safely and accurately identifying the real-time location of patients, staff,
and assets, Sacred Heart at RiverBend utilizes patient tracking within the ED
to reduce manual entry through automation of room status, physician assignments,
wait time alerts, EKG “in progress” and “complete,” and lab orders and
completion (through a GE Centricity interface). The facility will capture and
time-stamp all milestones related to ED patient visits including overall length
of stay, time to treatment, treatment time, and time together, etc., to allow
for individual patient stay and aggregate reporting. Visual representation on
Enterprise and Floorplan views provide wait time notifications through icon
aging and at-a-glance patient census.
In the future, asset tracking throughout the Sacred Heart at
RiverBend facility and the Oregon Heart and Vascular Institute will help
clinicians, materials specialists, transport, and other staff immediately
identify the location of needed equipment and ensure that equipment is properly
stocked, used, and maintained. Within the OR, Sacred Heart Medical Center at
RiverBend utilizes advanced rules related to gurneys, their presence in an OR
suite, and preconfigured timing intervals to trigger automatic room status
updates. This functionality allows staff to easily determine which rooms are in
use or ready for turnover. Patients and nursing staff alike benefit from the
facility’s automated nurse call system, enhancing communication by delivering
patients’ calls directly to their caregiver and reducing the nurses’ workloads
through automatic nurse registry and call cancellation.
“This is our third implementation with PeaceHealth,” says H. T.
Snowday, CTO of Versus Technology. “Facilities like PeaceHealth that understand
the compelling benefits of accurate locating are much farther ahead than
facilities that don’t deploy efficiency saving technologies. We look forward to
continued partnership with PeaceHealth in developing more creative, real-time
solutions to assist in the provision of safe and quality care.”
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.
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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
