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Exavera's eShepherd Selected by Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center to Provide Wireless Data Delivery at the Bedside and to Optimize Hospital Workflow
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. --(Business Wire)-- Oct. 19, 2004 --
Pilot Program Combines Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology with an 802.11 a/b/g Wireless LAN to Maximize Patient Safety
Exavera Technologies Incorporated, innovators in combining wireless technologies to create advanced networks, today announced that Mt. Ascutney Hospital has selected Exavera's eShepherd solution for a pilot deployment. eShepherd combines a high-speed WiFi (802.11a/b/g) network with its family of intelligent RFID-based patient bracelets, staff badges and asset tags. The solution works with existing hospital information systems (HIS) to provide positive patient identification; real-time location of patients, staff and assets; and information delivery at the bedside point-of-care.
Mt. Ascutney, a member of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Alliance, is a 99-bed community hospital in Windsor, Vermont and is part of the VHA healthcare alliance. The trial is being staged in the facility's rehabilitation center and will interface with existing clinical software to deliver data to the point-of-care and to enable bedside charting. By providing caregivers with secure, wireless, on-demand access to patients' medical information, the eShepherd pilot is expected to demonstrate significant time and cost savings. Ultimately, the program is scheduled to expand to include Exavera's Vera-T family of bracelets, badges and tags to introduce benefits such as positive patient identification, intelligent rounding, bed management and asset tracking.
"Being able to positively identify a patient and access his or her medical records at the bedside is a significant step in our ongoing mission to provide the highest quality of care," said Richard Slusky, Mt. Ascutney Hospital's chief executive officer. "Our pilot program with Exavera is yet another example of our commitment to both our employees and our patients."
Unlike bar coded patient bracelets, eShepherd's RFID bracelets contain a subset of the patient's electronic medical record, including a photograph for positive identification and medical history such as insurance information, allergies, physician contact data and current medications. In addition to this intelligence, the bracelet communicates automatically with the hospital's information system through Exavera's wireless HIS premise router, eliminating the need for manual scanning, and making the flow of data transparent to patients and caregivers. Using wireless input devices such as PDAs, tablet PCs, and point-of-care laptops, eShepherd enables real-time point-of-care services that are well integrated with the hospital's existing HIS and network infrastructure.
"We're thrilled that Mt. Ascutney has chosen us as their partner as they migrate to a new model of healthcare," said Evan Bontemps, founder and chief executive officer of Exavera. "It will be a pleasure to observe eShepherd empower the skilled professionals at Mt. Ascutney to provide outstanding care more efficiently and effectively."
Exavera's secure broadband wireless information-delivery solution minimizes patient identification errors that can compromise patient safety and increase hospital operating costs. In addition, hospital assets such as empty beds, wheelchairs and IV pumps can be immediately located, potentially saving thousands of dollars in operating costs. By enabling paperless record management and ensuring proper authorization of network users, eShepherd also helps hospitals achieve HIPAA compliance and satisfy positive patient identification requirements established by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO).
About Exavera Technologies Incorporated
Exavera combines secure broadband wireless technologies to build advanced networks that identify, locate and track people and assets, and document the interactions among them. Based in Portsmouth, N.H., Exavera's eShepherd solution is designed specifically for the healthcare market. More information is available at www.exavera.com.
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