Hospitals and Health Systems News

AKRON, OH–(Marketwire – September 14, 2010) –  The upcoming months will bring a critical need for good, reliable information as America’s hospital CEOs brace for what many predict will be unprecedented change.

Hospital profitability improvement expert Peter Ryerson says education will be vital for hospitals to keep their doors open. As president of Ryerson Healthcare Consultants, he has knowledge and experience gained through working with more than 540 hospitals in 40 states.

CEOs’ biggest questions, Ryerson says, are related to the U.S. healthcare bill. Estimates are that as many as 15 percent of U.S. hospitals may go out of business because they will lack the ability to adapt to strains resulting from healthcare reform.

“They are very concerned about the Healthcare Bill as it relates to hospital profitability,” Ryerson said. “Many are worried about reductions in reimbursements and I hear a lot of questions about how to get better reimbursement, without being RAC vulnerable.”

The answer is simple but not easy, Ryerson said.

“If you do your documentation, coding and billing correctly, you will be OK. It’s as straightforward as that,” he said. “While that sounds easy, it is very, very difficult for a lot of hospitals.”

Ryerson Healthcare Consultants finds that many hospital profitability improvement opportunities are missed due to gaps in information and bottlenecks in communication.

“Much education needs to happen, especially with the changes that are coming. Administrators need to be better educated, to recognize what is happening in their own documentation and coding, and then improve those areas and communicate the critical need for full compliance, so they can improve their charge capture,” Ryerson said.

Hospital boards often are predisposed to sympathize with the notion that healthcare already is too expensive, and inclined to resist efforts to capture and bill for more services. “CEOs should understand that with proper documentation, coding and billing, they will be reimbursed appropriately, and then have the fortitude to step in front of their boards and say, ‘This is what we need and are going to do,'” he said.

“CEOs and boards must no longer delay in addressing these issues as our healthcare system drives us toward the major changes that are ahead. Their hospital’s profitability — and their ability to keep their doors open — depends on how well they manage through all of the uncertainties ahead,” Ryerson said.

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MUNDELEIN, IL–(Marketwire – September 13, 2010) –  Clinicians at Arkansas Methodist Medical Center (AMMC) are changing the way they assess and perform urinary catheter insertions — and it’s working. With the help of Medline Industries, Inc.’s ERASE CAUTI Foley catheter management system, which combines evidence-based principles and training with a revolutionary one-layer tray design, AMMC has seen a 21 percent reduction in catheterizations and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). Urinary tract infections (UTIs) account for 40% of all healthcare-associated infections according to the CDC. Urinary catheters are associated with the vast majority of those healthcare-acquired UTIs.⁽¹⁾

“The one-layer tray design is labeled in a specific sequence that helps guide our nurses during the catheterization process to adhere to current CDC recommendations, including aseptic technique,” said Lisa Bridges, RN, Infection Preventionist for AMMC. “To help us reduce catheterizations, we are requiring our entire nursing staff to take the program education on the alternatives to catheterization. Plus, the new tray has a checklist to help the nurse make a decision on whether catheterization is appropriate for the patient and assure that the education transfers into everyday clinical practice.”

As measured by the number of catheterizations performed in March and April 2009 versus the same time in period in 2010, AMMC reduced the number of catheterizations from 192 to 151, a 21 percent drop (based on adjusted patient day). This decrease contributed to the hospital achieving zero CAUTIs in April 2010, compared to three in April 2009, according to Bridges. 

Another leading factor causing CAUTI is leaving a catheter in place for more than two days after surgery.⁽²⁾  The new Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) recommends removal of catheters within 24-48 hours post-operatively. In the first quarter of 2009, only 20 percent of the catheters AMMC placed in the O.R. were being removed within two days. With the implementation of the ERASE CAUTI program, the removal rate increased to 50 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

“With the Foley InserTag and checklist sticker placed on the patient’s chart, nurses and physicians knew exactly when the catheters had been placed,” said Bridges, “and were able to remove them in the necessary 24-48 hours after surgery.”

Also, inserted in the tray is a patient education care card that looks like an actual get well card. According to Bridges, the card is a more effective way to educate patients about the procedure, including the risks and complications associated with closed system Foley catheters.

“Before, we had to print our education from the computer, and it was not something the patient or the clinician normally took time to review,” said Bridges. “The patient care card has significantly improved our ability to provide patients and families with a tool to help them better understand the proper care and maintenance of the catheter, signs and symptoms of CAUTI and how they can help reduce the chances of developing CAUTI.” 

AMMC, a 129-bed inpatient facility located in Paragould, Arkansas, has more than 200 nurses on staff. Almost 25,000 patients visit the hospital’s emergency room annually; a total of 4,196 patients are admitted; and physicians perform 795 inpatient and 1,827 outpatient surgeries. 

About Medline Industries, Inc. 
Medline, the nation’s largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products, manufactures and distributes more than 100,000 products to hospitals, extended care facilities, surgery centers, home care dealers and agencies. Headquartered in Mundelein, IL, Medline has more than 900 dedicated sales representatives nationwide to support its broad product line and cost management services.

Over the past five years, Medline has been the fastest growing distributor of medical and surgical supplies in the U.S., serving as the primary distributor to over 450 major hospitals and healthcare systems. As a leading distributor, Medline offers a comprehensive array of consulting and management services encompassing the supply chain and logistics, utilization and standardization, business tools and enhanced reporting capabilities, and on-staff clinicians.

⁽¹⁾ Catheter-related UTIs: a disconnect in preventive strategies. Physician’s Weekly. 2008; 24(6).

⁽²⁾ Wald HL, Ma A, Bratzler DW, Kramer AM. Indwelling urinary catheter use in the postoperative period: analysis of the national surgical infection prevent project data. Arch Surg. 2008; 143:551-557.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC–(Marketwire – September 13, 2010) –  Antimicrobial Technologies Group (ATG) announces they had a successful series of meetings in Winston-Salem as they reviewed several potential sites for establishment of their textile manufacturing and finishing needs. ATG has developed products that provide infection protection and odor control at the highest level of safety, efficacy and cost effectiveness for anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-odor fabrics, fibers, plastics and paints.

Mark Fulk of Meridian Realty Group and Stan Cruitt of Grande Peak Technologies hosted Simon and members of his management team for their visit to the area.

According to Johnston the Winston-Salem and surrounding area has potential to satisfy ATG’s needs. “Mark and his team presented many attractive facilities to us for review and we do see a good fit,” says Johnston. “Although initially we may need a 100,000 square foot facility, our products are of such a scale that within a few years we could grow out of that space. We are very interested in creative thinking with regard to the RJR Whitaker plant.”

According to Stan Cruitt of Grande Peak Technologies, a specialty healthcare marketing company, the market potential for ATG’s products is significant and the capacity to utilize a plant the size of the Whitaker facility is not just a dream. “There are five very large textile related markets where ATG products can make a difference and gain substantial market share. The first is the hospitality and home linen market for sheets and pillow cases. Hotels and motels that provide odor free, bacteria free linens, which may also be prophylactic against bedbugs, will generate considerable demand and market presence. The second is the hospital specialty market which includes masks, scrubs, towels and linens,” Cruitt continues. “With more than 6,000 hospitals and 35 million patient discharges annually, the potential for high market share is driven by cost savings that hospitals can achieve. The third is the diabetic market for foot ulcer prevention. Nearly 23 million people in the US have diabetes and ATG’s socks for diabetics can help prevent the infections that often lead to slow healing wounds, and even amputations. No other product is available in US healthcare that provides continued control of the bacteria and fungi that lead to these problems. The fourth major market is the military for the supply of antimicrobial and antifungal socks and underwear. And lastly, the fifth is the sportswear market for sport bras, sport socks and more. Odor control, antibacterial, and antifungal are features that consumers will pay for.”

“We are enthusiastic about the possibilities and are looking forward to pulling together the necessary partners for creative planning,” says Fulk. “The opportunity that ATG brings could make Winston-Salem a primary incubator for specialty and medical textile manufacturing in the US and a major contributor for new jobs in our city. We believe ATG has the technology to back up the vision Simon Johnston has for his company.”

Johnston adds, “All of our products have the potential for international distribution which could lead to substantial exports from our North Carolina facility. Our technology is lower cost than other antimicrobials and longer lasting due to the re-chargeability feature. We prefer to manage all finishing and dying in the US but we’re also looking into the possibility of including the cutting, weaving, sewing in the facility for some of our more specialized products.”

About Antimicrobial Technologies Group: ATG has developed a number of patent pending and proprietary technologies that provide low cost, long-acting antimicrobial, antifungal and antiviral protections to a wide range of products including textiles for healthcare, sportswear, consumer, hospitality and other markets. Contact ATG at 425-891-9151.

About Grande Peak Technologies: Grande Peak is a healthcare marketing specialty company focused on launching new technologies into health markets. Contact Grande Peak at 336-414-9035.

About Meridian Realty Group: Meridian is a full-service commercial and industrial brokerage and management company based in Winston-Salem. Contact Meridian at 336-722-1986.

IRVING, TX–(Marketwire – September 13, 2010) –  VHA Inc., the national health care network, announced today that it will offer a new leadership award to honor not-for-profit member hospitals that are leading the way in developing and implementing outstanding sustainability programs. 

“Most hospitals in the U.S. are intensely focused on the care they deliver to patients but not always as focused on the impact they have on the environment,” said Michael Regier, senior vice president of legal and corporate affairs at VHA. “However, due to heightened awareness and commitment to the global and local communities, a growing number of hospital leaders are looking at their organization’s environmental impact and they are doing some pretty amazing things about it. VHA plans to honor those leading hospitals and encourage others to step up.”

VHA will recognize hospitals that have:

• Shown a commitment to the development, implementation and promotion of a sustainability strategy
• Developed a “best in class” sustainability program, such as on-site programs to save energy, recycle, reduce waste or conserve water
• Measured and reported progress toward sustainability goals
• Demonstrated a commitment to increasing awareness of its sustainability story in the community and/or among its employees

The Sustainability Excellence Award is part of VHA’s existing Leadership Award series that honors hospitals for excellence in supply chain management, clinical care and community benefit leadership. The new award is also part of VHA’s larger commitment to recognizing and advancing innovative sustainability initiatives through its own Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability program. 

“VHA, Novation and Provista have taken significant steps that not only support our mission but also make a positive impact on our employees, our member health care organizations and the community around us,” said Terri Scannell, VHA’s director of corporate citizenship and sustainability. “We’re proud that VHA’s own CC&S program has twice received national recognition, and we are excited to introduce the VHA Sustainability Excellence Award that will recognize and applaud our members’ efforts and great work.”

The Sustainability Excellence award program is open to VHA hospitals that were active members in 2010 and that have developed organizational sustainability programs and initiatives. To enter, visit VHA’s Web site and download the Sustainability Excellence Award overview, criteria and application materials. Awards will be given in two categories — one for large IDNS and one for hospitals, and winners will be recognized at the 2011 Leadership Conference in San Diego. 

About VHA — VHA Inc., based in Irving, Texas, is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations that work together to drive maximum savings in the supply chain arena, set new levels of clinical performance and identify and implement best practices to improve operational efficiency and clinical outcomes. Formed in 1977, through its 16 regional offices, VHA serves 1,400 hospitals and more than 30,000 non-acute care providers nationwide. VHA was ranked by Modern Healthcare as the 7th best place to work in health care in 2009. 

MUNDELEIN, IL–(Marketwire – September 9, 2010) –  As part of Medline’s ERASE CAUTI™ program, created to help clinicians reduce the risk of urinary catheter-associated infections, the company today announced the launch of a pediatric catheter tray designed to help clinicians better perform and manage urinary catheterizations for children. The new tray introduces “Buddy the Brave,” a friendly, upbeat animal character, to help younger patients better manage the catheter process. Buddy is featured on the tray’s packaging, in a children’s activity card and on a bravery sticker.

“Our ‘Buddy the Brave’ character and related materials may help children focus their attention away from the procedure, which will help them to tolerate what can be an unpleasant experience,” said Alecia Cooper, senior vice president of clinical services for Medline. “The ERASE CAUTI system combines evidence-based principles and training with a revolutionary-designed tray to assist the clinician in using a proven and safe method for catheter insertion and maintenance.”

In a survey done on 110,709 pediatric ICU patients, 6,290 healthcare-associated infections were noted. The top three major sites of infections, accounting for 64% of all healthcare-associated infections, were bloodstream infections (28%), pneumonia (21%), and urinary tract infection (15%). Each of these infections was strongly associated with use of an invasive device.¹

The new pediatric tray is the latest addition to Medline’s ERASE CAUTI product line. Similar to the adult version, the new pediatric tray features an innovative one-layer design. The one-layer design (versus the industry norm of two layers) supports and encourages a logical “best practices” sequence of events during catheterization that helps the provider adhere to current recommended healthcare practices. The new tray design is intuitive, reduces variance in care process and promotes efficiency.

Other features of the ERASE CAUTI pediatric catheter tray system include:

Clear photography of tray contents. In Medline’s new pediatric Foley catheter tray, the product instructions and clear color images are located on the outside to encourage clinicians to review the information before they start. To help identify the contents of the kit, the label features an actual color photo of the tray components, including a picture of Buddy the Brave that easily identifies the product as a pediatric tray. The photo can also be used to discuss the procedure with the patient and parent. The outer label opens like a book and on the inside is a clear, step-by-step instructional guide to catheter insertion.

Checklist that helps practitioners “do the right thing.” The outer label contains “trigger tools,” according to Cooper, to promote the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A checklist of clinical indications for catheterization is printed on a peel-off sticker. The checklist is formatted to easily fit in the patient chart or medical record. It is also available in an electronic format for electronic documentation.

Buddy the Brave Activity Card and family education resource. To keep young patients distracted from the medical procedure, an activity card is included in the tray. The card includes a story featuring Buddy the Brave, a word find game and a maze. The activity card also provides useful family education on urinary catheters and the catheterization process.

Competency validation tools. A key component to the effectiveness of the ERASE CAUTI program is the cutting edge online competency and measurement tools that assess and sustain staff results. The interactive competency programs are available on Medline University, Medline’s online education resource. They are available to staff anytime and can be easily incorporated into the annual skills competency program for a facility’s nursing staff.

About Medline Industries, Inc.
Medline, the nation’s largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products, manufactures and distributes more than 100,000 products to hospitals, extended-care facilities, surgery centers, home care dealers and agencies. Headquartered in Mundelein, Ill., Medline has more than 900 dedicated sales representatives nationwide to support its broad product line and cost management services.

Over the past five years, Medline has been the fastest-growing distributor of medical and surgical supplies in the U.S., serving as the primary distributor to over 450 major hospitals and healthcare systems. As a leading distributor, Medline offers a comprehensive array of consulting and management services encompassing the supply chain and logistics, utilization and standardization, business tools and enhanced reporting capabilities and on-staff clinicians.

WINCHESTER, CA–(Marketwire – September 9, 2010) –  James Bertalotto of Springdale, Arkansas was the door gunner and crew chief of a Huey helicopter in Vietnam. He served two tours from 1966-1969. “When you’re the crew chief and you are assigned to a helicopter, you go wherever that ‘copter goes. It’s like a cowboy and his horse.” For Bertalotto, that helicopter took him into some life experiences that caused trauma which to this day he still has trouble overcoming. After all these years the Vietnam War still rages within him. “Not all wounds are visible,” said Bertalotto. Still, he tries to cope. He says he receives excellent care at the Fayetteville VA Medical Center where he goes for therapy twice a week. It was during a therapy session that Bertalotto was first introduced to the Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV) arts & crafts program.

Bertalotto said, “I have a wife of 40 years, two children and five grandchildren and they are the love of my life. I started working on the HHV craft kits about three years ago and really enjoy working on them. I get about three or four a year and work on them with my grandchildren. It’s a special time to share with them… to listen, laugh and share a hug.” Bertalotto recently worked on one of HHV’s newest kits — the Veterans Pride Desktop Flag kit. “We were all so proud of the flags in the kit that I instructed my grandkids to put it on my casket when I pass away,” he added. Bertalotto says working on the craft kits takes his mind away from his troubling thoughts. “The kits bring a level of enjoyment into my life I wouldn’t have otherwise, but the hugs are the best part of working on them. That’s the best medicine of all.”

HHV is the largest supplier of free therapeutic arts & crafts kits to VA and military hospitals worldwide. For more information on HHV products and services, please visit www.hhv.org or call 1-888-567-VETS.

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WEST HARTFORD, CT–(Marketwire – September 9, 2010) –  ORLive, the leader in online medical video, presents a live interactive broadcast focusing on the use of artificial disc treatments for cervical disease. In addition ORLive invites you to take part in the latest installment of the Virtual Brain Tumor Board, and wraps up our back to school focus with three new educational video referrals.

NEW ON ORLIVE

LIVE VIDEO — Artificial Disc Treatments for Cervical Disease
Live Thursday, September 9, at 7:00PM

Until recently, spinal fusion was the surgical solution to cervical disc disease. ORLive invites you to watch footage of an Artificial Discectomy performed by William Kuhn, MD of Halifax Hospital, and join in on a live online discussion with the doctor and patient, Ali Rabatsky. 

Viewers of this video are invited to interact with the team via the ORLive website, where you can also request a reminder to alert you when this video is going live.

ORLIVE REFERRALS – Week of September 5, 2010
Each week ORLive highlights on-demand videos for our membership and visitors. 

Medical Education Referral: Defining and Treating Chronic Pain from Beth Israel Hospital in New York City.

CME Referral: The Science and Medicine of Parkinson’s Disease from CMEducation Resources.

Viewer’s Referral: Landmark Practice Advances in STEMI and ACS from CMEducation Resources.

HIGHLIGHTS

NOW ON-DEMAND — Surgical and Medical Treatments for Type 2 Diabetes
Now Available On-Demand

Type 2 diabetes can lead to potentially deadly complications for many patients, but the team at NewYork-Presbyterian remains on the forefront of research and treatment innovations. Join Dr. Francesco Rubino, Chief, Gastrointestinal Metabolic Surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Judith Korner, from Columbia University Medical Center, and Dr. Louis Aronne, from the Weill Cornell Medical Center, as they review the advancements that are being made and see what happens when gastric bypass surgery results in a possible remission of diabetes.

Viewers of this video can still interact with the team via the ORLive website, where you can also request updates as they become available.

FEATURED CHANNEL — Sorin Group
With over 40 years of experience, Sorin Group is responsible for many of the innovations that have made heart valve replacement and repair among the safest and most effective procedures in the world today. ORLive invites you to watch and learn as Sorin presents video of many of these devices on the Sorin ORLive Channel. 

PREVIEW — Continuum® Acetabular System and Zimmer® M/L Taper with Kinectiv® Technology
Premieres Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7PM EDT

On Thursday, September 23rd at 7PM EDT Zimmer Medical Education will broadcast an ORLive Total Hip Arthroplasty featuring the Continuum Acetabular System and the Kinectiv Modular Neck Technology. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Mark Hartzband, Hartzband Center for Hip and Knee Replacement, L.L.C., Paramus, NJ and will be moderated by Dr. Paul Duwelius, St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, OR. The broadcast will last one hour and will show the entire surgical procedure. Following the live broadcast the surgery will be archived for future playback.

This opportunity allows for firsthand insight of the safe and effective implantation and surgical procedure involved with the Continuum® Acetabular System and the Zimmer® M/L Taper with Kinectiv® Technology.

This surgery video is available exclusively to members of the ORLive community, and members can interact and ask questions via the ORLive website. Learn more about this broadcast or get a reminder at ORLive.com, and be ready to view this exciting procedure by activating your free membership to ORLive today.

About ORLive
ORLive is the leading provider of video communication channels to the healthcare community. Working collaboratively with hospitals and device manufacturers, ORLive produces and distributes customized, interactive, video programs that demonstrate the latest advances in medicine, surgical techniques and product innovations. The ORLive broadcasting network provides an intimate look at over 650 live and on-demand surgeries to a global audience, streaming over 50,000 hours of programming each month. The ORLive network can be found on-line at www.ORLive.com.

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MADISON, WI–(Marketwire – September 9, 2010) – TomoTherapy Incorporated (NASDAQ: TOMO), maker of advanced, integrated radiation therapy solutions for cancer care, today announced that its technology will soon be used to treat cancer patients in Nottingham, England. The Nottingham Radiotherapy Centre will install the TomoTherapy^® Hi·Art^® treatment system in November as part of a service expansion and relocation. 

The TomoTherapy treatment system enables delivery of state-of-the-art CT image-guided intensity modulated radiotherapy (IG-IMRT), enabling the hospital to reinforce its leadership in high-quality, efficient cancer care for the people of the East Midlands of England.

The Nottingham Radiotherapy Centre serves a population of approximately 1 million and delivers 37,000 fractions of radiation therapy annually. The Centre provides complex external beam treatment including paediatric radiation therapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), continuous hyperfractionation, and total body electron and photon radiation therapy. The centre is part of Nottingham University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Trust, which is one of the country’s largest teaching hospitals.

Russell Hart, Radiotherapy Service Manager of the Centre, states:

“Our multi-disciplinary team is thrilled to be introducing TomoTherapy technology. Benefits will include better access for our patients to what we believe is the best delivery system for complex image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IG-IMRT). The new machine will also mean that there will be some patients for whom curative treatment will now be possible whereas in the past treatment would only have been offered on a palliative basis. A clear advantage of the TomoTherapy system is the rapid installation time. This will enable us to have the high technology available in a short space of time — much quicker than a conventional linear accelerator.

Here at Nottingham, in line with national policy, we believe that four-dimensional (4D) Adaptive Radiotherapy is the future standard of care for radiotherapy treatment, and that the TomoTherapy Hi·Art system is the most sophisticated and best system to achieve this objective. We believe our equipment strategy will provide us with a full range of treatment options for the population we serve, with the TomoTherapy system best able to deliver the most complex dose distributions.”

Commenting on the key role TomoTherapy technology is playing in a publicly funded health service, Julie Mead, Director and Clinical Advisor from Oncology Systems Limited, states:

“The oncology team at Nottingham put all equipment vendors through a rigorous clinical and technical public tender evaluation. They clearly concluded that the TomoTherapy platform would bring significant benefits to a centre that is reported as having one of the busiest patient throughput figures per treatment machine, in all of the UK. Already having a linac IMRT programme in place, the Nottingham Radiotherapy Centre also saw the improvement in treatment quality that TomoTherapy technology would bring, along with centre-wide efficiency gains from allocating advanced treatments to the unit. In difficult financial times, the TomoTherapy platform offers not only the best quality radiotherapy, but also the highest efficiency for advanced IG-IMRT. The NHS looks at cost-effectiveness as a key criterion. The TomoTherapy platform fits the bill.”

Reinforcing the efficiency requirements so critical to the publicly funded NHS, Nottingham’s Russell Hart adds:

“We treat between 35 to 50 patients per normal working day on our linear accelerators, depending on the complexity of the work being undertaken. We aim to maintain that throughput and utilise TomoTherapy technology to its maximum, by treating up to 35 patients per day. Other NHS TomoTherapy customer sites have demonstrated that this is possible in the UK, but of course this will be a tremendous achievement in Nottingham as we clearly expect that the treatments delivered on the TomoTherapy unit will have far higher quality and complexity than what is feasible on the linear accelerator it is replacing.”

TomoTherapy technology is developed and manufactured by TomoTherapy Inc., and is supplied in the UK by Oncology Systems Limited, based in Shrewsbury, England.

About Nottingham University Hospital
Nottingham City University Hospital NHS Trust (NUH) is one of England’s busiest and largest acute teaching trusts. It provides acute and specialist services to 2.5 million people within Nottingham and surrounding communities from the Queen’s Medical Centre and the City Hospital campuses. The hospital’s annual budget is in excess of £682 million of public sector funding, housing over 1,700 hospital beds and employing over 13,000 staff.

Nottingham is the only city in the country to secure three successful bids for prestigious biomedical research units. NUH is working with The University of Nottingham to help to translate research findings for stomach, bowel and liver disease, hearing and respiratory disease into better patient care.

About Oncology Systems Limited
Oncology Systems Limited (OSL) is a privately owned limited company based in Shrewsbury, England. OSL is an exclusive supplier of radiation therapy technology to the UK and Ireland. It distributes TomoTherapy^® cancer treatment technology to the UK’s NHS and private radiotherapy facilities, and to both public and private providers in the Republic of Ireland.

About TomoTherapy Incorporated
TomoTherapy Incorporated develops, markets and sells advanced radiation therapy solutions that can be used to treat a wide variety of cancers, from the most common to the most complex. The ring gantry-based TomoTherapy^® platform combines integrated CT imaging with conformal radiation therapy to deliver sophisticated radiation treatments with speed and precision while reducing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. TomoTherapy’s suite of solutions include its flagship Hi·Art^® treatment system, which has been used to deliver more than three million CT-guided, helical intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment fractions; the TomoHD^™ treatment system, designed to enable cancer centers to treat a broader patient population with a single device; and the TomoMobile^™ relocatable radiation therapy solution, designed to improve access and availability of state-of-the-art cancer care. TomoTherapy’s stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol TOMO. To learn more about TomoTherapy, please visit TomoTherapy.com.

©2010 TomoTherapy Incorporated. All rights reserved. TomoTherapy, Tomo, TomoDirect, TQA, the TomoTherapy logo and Hi·Art are among trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of TomoTherapy Incorporated in the United States and other countries.

CINCINNATI, OH–(Marketwire – September 8, 2010) –  Compass Clinical Consulting features Jim Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (1996-2010), in a newly published, in-depth monograph on leadership excellence in healthcare.

LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY

In 1996, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) had 3,500 employees, 365,000 yearly patient encounters and $453 million in revenue. At the time, the hospital was looking for a new CEO to transform, grow and lead the organization into an uncertain future.

SAFE & OBVIOUS CHOICE

The safe and obvious selection would have been a candidate with extensive hospital administration training and long-term, proven leadership experience.

But, the CCHMC Board chose exactly the opposite.

A LAWYER … WITH A LEAN MANUFACTURING BACKGROUND?

They selected a lifelong attorney with a manufacturing executive background — a lawyer with an entrepreneurial bent and appreciation of lean manufacturing principles — James M. Anderson.

AND THAT MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

In all measures, the hospital’s success and growth under Jim Anderson’s visionary leadership was extraordinary. When he retired at the end of 2009, CCHMC had grown to over 11,000 employees, 925,000 yearly patient encounters and $1.6 billion in revenue. Under Mr. Anderson’s leadership CCHMC was transformed from a small regional hospital serving the greater Cincinnati area into an internationally recognized leader in improving healthcare outcomes, experience and results for children.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

To learn more, read the newly published Compass Clinical Consulting “Profiles in Healthcare Leadership” monograph, featuring hard-won lessons from Jim Anderson’s career at CCHMC.

Key Lessons for Hospital Leaders:

• How setting a goal at zero defects changes your aspirational framework and exemplifies the extraordinary commitment required of patient- and family-centered care
• What to do when your best people tell you it can’t be done — and how to do it anyway, saving lives
• Lead with lawyers to reduce hospital, healthcare and legal costs
• How to build an Entrepreneurial Healthcare Organization
• One simple message to align the workforce and leadership

Compass Clinical Consulting’s “Profiles in Healthcare Leadership” are the products of interviews with transformational leaders in today’s healthcare industry — all of whom have demonstrated courage, ingenuity and the hard work needed to create dramatic, measurable and sustainable improvements in healthcare. These featured leaders challenge assumptions, see things differently and create remarkable breakthroughs.

DOWNLOAD your copy of Profiles in Healthcare Leadership: An Interview with Jim Anderson

About:
Compass Clinical is a healthcare consultancy founded in 1979 and based in Cincinnati, OH. Compass experts have helped hundreds of hospitals and health systems prepare for accreditation, optimize labor cost management, manage clinical resources, and improve patient throughput and physician relations. Compass also places interim healthcare executives.

CHARLOTTE, NC–(Marketwire – September 8, 2010) –  Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS), a subsidiary of Consulier Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSLR), today announced that St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, IL has selected the company’s Amelior Tracker® system to automatically track medical equipment throughout their facility. This system will become the standard within the healthcare network.

St. John’s Hospital is part of the Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) which is a multi-institutional health care system that sponsors 13 hospitals in 12 communities across Illinois and Wisconsin with St. John’s being the largest hospital within the system. The hospital is a 539-bed acute care, teaching facility that helps to educate more than 300 medical students and 150 resident physicians each year, and is the only level III perinatal care center in central Illinois.

With the Amelior Tracker® system, St. John’s Hospital has a specific need to track their mobile medical equipment allowing them to increase equipment utilization, decrease the requirement to rent additional units and have more consistent preventative maintenance for maximum operating performance. They will start with tracking 2500 assets including IV pumps, beds, C5 tablets, DVT equipment and feeding pumps. Amelior Tracker will integrate with the CenTrak Gen2IR™ active RF technology tags providing precise, adaptable and cost-effective medical equipment tracking.

The installation, expected to be complete by the end of 2010 will include the Amelior Tracker® solution — part of the Amelior Enterprise Visibility and Workflow Automation 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 (temperature monitoring, asset management, patient flow, infection control) and by the scope of hospital workflow (acute care, inpatient floors, outpatient services, enterprise-wide).

Amelior Tracker is interoperable with all major locating technologies including active-RFID, infrared, ultrasound, ultra-wideband, Wi-Fi and ZigBee. PCTS also works closely with a network of successful locating hardware partners and provides consulting services so the best locating technology or technologies are chosen to match the client’s particular needs. In addition, the Amelior Interface Gateway™ supports the exchange of data between an Amelior tracking or documentation solution and virtually any hospital information system. Key functions include sending/ receiving, data transformation, transaction logging, administration/monitoring and notifications. These platforms work together to offer extensive performance and workflow advantages to the healthcare industry.

“When researching our options, we felt it was very important that any system we chose be able to expand to our other facilities within the network and allow the flexibility to incorporate the various RTLS needs of each location,” said Ryan Leach, chief information officer for St. John’s Hospital. “PCTS has an outstanding reputation with strong customer references and proved to be a trusted advisor. Interoperability with the various RTLS technologies was one of the many benefits of choosing PCTS.”

“We are very excited to partner with St. John’s Hospital. Their materials management, network engineering, information systems and biomedical teams understood the importance of looking beyond asset ‘dots on a map’ tracking to the opportunity of having true workflow automation,” said Tony Marsico, president and chief executive officer of PCTS. “We look forward to a solid execution of the installation and the opportunity to serve other facilities within the network in the near future.”

PCTS will have the opportunity to expand their Amelior Enterprise Visibility and Workflow Automation Suite into other facilities within the Hospital Sisters Health System. St. John’s recently announced the expansion of their surgical department and patient tower that will add an additional 16 surgical suites and provide a more efficient footprint for easy access to a variety of services including outpatient and inpatient surgery. 

About St. John’s Hospital

St. John’s Hospital is a regional medical center that offers a comprehensive array of tertiary healthcare services to a population base of 1.5 million central and southern Illinois residents. St. John’s is the flagship hospital of Hospital Sisters Health System, a healthcare ministry with 13 hospitals and a multi-specialty medical group in Illinois and Wisconsin. Prairie Heart Institute at St. John’s Hospital is a national leader in cardiovascular care. St. John’s Children’s Hospital is accredited by the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (N.A.C.H.R.I.) and is the regions only Pediatric Critical Care Center. The Children’s Hospital is home to the areas only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. St. John’s is designated as a Level I Trauma Center on a yearly rotating basis, serves as a teaching hospital for the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, as has its own School of Nursing. St. John’s is also home to the Cancer Institute, Carol Jo Vecchie Women Services/Birth Center, Regional Wound Care Center, AthletiCare Sports Medicine, Sleep Center and Center for Living. 

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 people and equipment throughout their facility. PCTS solutions have supported over 2 million patient visits annually and have shown a proven return on investment in high turnover, high-acuity units such as the emergency department and perioperative suites. The Amelior Enterprise Visibility and Workflow Automation Suite™ is interoperable 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) — 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.

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ALBUQUERQUE, NM–(Marketwire – September 8, 2010) –  Medical device company Avanca Medical Devices, Inc. (www.avancamedical.com) continues to prove the superior performance of its one-handed syringe, the RPD® over regular syringes. A recent study using sonographic guidance and the RPD® one-handed syringe, Does Sonographic Needle Guidance Affect the Clinical Outcome of Intra-articular Injections? (J Rheumatol. 2009 Sep; 36(9):1892-902.) demonstrated more beneficial results — much less procedural pain, improved effect of the injected drug, greater responder rate, and reduced non-responder rate — using sonographic needle guidance with the RPD^® than using sonographic needle guidance with a conventional syringe. The study showed that the one-handed RPD^® (reciprocating procedure device) significantly improves the performance and outcomes of ultrasound-guided injections in a clinically significant manner. Another recent study, A Randomized, Double-blind, Controlled Study of Ultrasound-guided Corticosteroid Injection into the Joint of Patients with Inflammatory Arthritis (Arthritis Rheum. 2010 Jul; 62(7):1862-9), demonstrated no improvement of outcomes of ultrasound-guided intra-articular injections with a conventional syringe. The study addressed whether sonographic needle guidance affected clinical outcomes of intra-articular (IA) joint injections, and determined that there was no benefit from sonographic guidance when performed with a conventional syringe. These two studies emphasize that to take full advantage of sonographic needle guidance to improve patient outcomes, improved control of the syringe device is necessary. Using the one-handed RPD^® syringe instead of a conventional syringe with ultrasound is a more effective way to treat patients and justify sonographic needle guidance to 3^rd party payers.

Dr. Wilmer L. Sibbitt, Jr., a physician at UNM’s Health Sciences Center (HSC), commented: “With any new device, outcome trials to show a benefit to the patient are always necessary. Outcome trials with the RPD^® have demonstrated greater patient safety, much less procedural pain, and better outcomes in syringe procedures, including biopsy and injections of medications for corticosteroids, hyaluronate, local anesthetics, cosmetic agents and neuromuscular drugs. New studies combining the RPD^® with ultrasound guidance are ongoing and have great promise to improve the safety and outcomes of medical procedures in all fields of procedural medicine.”

Avanca Medical Devices, Inc. is currently conducting clinical trials on cost-effectiveness using the RPD^® to demonstrate that low-cost alterations in IA technique can have a major impact on outcome.

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL–(Marketwire – September 8, 2010) –  Beginning in July 2011, The Joint Commission will expand the process of accrediting ambulatory health care organizations to those who are also interested in electing the Primary Care Home option. A Primary Care Home is a model of care whereby services are provided to patients by a primary care provider or team that increases access to its services, tracks and coordinates a patient’s care delivered by other providers and facilities, uses evidence based treatment protocols, and focuses more on patient and family education and self-management. This helps to ensure the patient receives timely and appropriate treatment. The Primary Care Home option will help accredited organizations to increase patient satisfaction, improve patient outcomes and reduce the overall costs to the health care system.

This initiative complements the Ambulatory Care Accreditation Program and is consistent with the new health care reform efforts to improve the coordination, quality and efficiency of health care services. This initiative is designed to combine the improvements in quality of care and patient safety achieved through accreditation with increased reimbursement from third party payers when the additional requirements of a Primary Care Home are met.

Standards for the Primary Care Home Initiative will be posted for a field review in November 2010, and pilot testing is expected to begin in early 2011. The final standards are expected to be available in March 2011, and on-site surveys will begin in July 2011.

“This new optional program will help ensure that patients receive ambulatory care services in a manner that is comprehensive, accessible and coordinated. By focusing on carefully orchestrating care, patient outcomes can be improved,” says Michael Kulczycki, executive director, Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation Program, The Joint Commission.

A Primary Care Home Initiative Expert Panel is guiding the development of supplemental ambulatory care accreditation standards for organizations that elect the Primary Care Home option. Specifically, the panel is providing input on topics such as:

• Roles and responsibilities of the primary care provider;
• Roles, responsibilities and composition of the care team;
• Processes necessary to ensure and support continuity of care;
• Processes to support and incorporate patient self management; and
• Operational topics such as scheduling of patient appointments to ensure adequate access to care.

A broader advisory and resource group — which includes representatives from national and state organizations and trade associations, along with other interested stakeholders — will provide additional guidance and assistance in the implementation of the initiative. The Joint Commission is also seeking feedback from Medicare and Medicaid officials and insurance companies to ensure that the Primary Care Home standards will enable organizations to be eligible for enhanced reimbursement.

For more information about the Primary Care Home Initiative, please visit www.jointcommission.org/PCHI or contact Michael Kulczycki at 630.792.5290 or [email protected].

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 18,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 9,700 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,800 other health care organizations that provide long term care, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. In addition, The Joint Commission also provides certification of more than 1,700 disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.

To view this release in a media-rich version, go to: http://www.pwrnewmedia.com/2010/jointcommission_00907_primary_care_home/index.html

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DENVER, CO–(Marketwire – September 7, 2010) –  Eating Recovery Center (www.EatingRecoveryCenter.com) today announced that two of the nation’s foremost eating disorders experts have joined its executive team. Craig Johnson, PhD, FAED, CEDS, has been named chief clinical officer of Eating Recovery Center and Ovidio Bermudez, MD, FAAP, FSAM, FAED, CEDS, will become the medical director of Eating Recovery Center’s new child and adolescent treatment program. The appointments of these renowned doctors, known for their scholarship, dedication and clinical expertise, further elevate Denver, Colo., as the nation’s hub for eating disorders treatment.

Eating Recovery Center, a national center for eating disorders recovery providing comprehensive treatment for anorexia and bulimia, currently operates a licensed behavioral hospital for adults with serious eating disorders and an outpatient office, both located in Denver, Colo.

“Eating disorders impact 11 million Americans and remain the deadliest mental illnesses,” said Kenneth L. Weiner, MD, CEDS, founding partner and chief executive officer of Eating Recovery Center. “With the addition of Drs. Johnson and Bermudez, Eating Recovery Center has assembled an internationally renowned team to help patients tackle every level of care from critical inpatient care to outpatient treatment.”

As chief clinical officer, Dr. Johnson will direct Eating Recovery Center’s clinical program development and implementation. He will also drive the Center’s research efforts in conjunction with Emmett R. Bishop, Jr., MD, CEDS, founding partner and medical director of adult services of Eating Recovery Center. A leader in the field of eating disorders treatment since 1979, Dr. Johnson founded and was most recently the director of the Eating Disorders Program at Laureate Psychiatric Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. He is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Medical School and has formerly held faculty appointments at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University Medical Schools. 

Dr. Johnson was the founding editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, as well as a founding member of both the Academy of Eating Disorders and the Eating Disorders Research Society. He is also past president of the National Eating Disorders Association. He has authored three books, more than 70 scientific articles, and has been the recipient of several distinguished contribution awards.

“Eating Recovery Center’s ability to quickly adapt treatment innovations has led to the organization becoming a leader in the field of eating disorders. I look forward to working with this distinguished group to further advance the field,” said Dr. Johnson.

Dr. Bermudez, nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in the treatment of adolescents with eating disorders, will apply his expertise to the development of Eating Recovery Center’s new child and adolescent treatment program. Most recently the medical director of Laureate’s Eating Disorders Program, Dr. Bermudez is co-founder of the Eating Disorders Coalition of Tennessee (EDCT), vice-president and co-founder of the Oklahoma Eating Disorders Association (OEDA), as well as past president of the National Eating Disorders Association. He also serves in several leadership positions within the Academy for Eating Disorders.

Dr. Bermudez holds an academic appointment as clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He was previously faculty at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Additionally, he is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and member of the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals. Dr. Bermudez has lectured nationally and internationally on eating disorders, childhood obesity and other topics related to adolescent healthcare. He has been widely recognized for his dedication and advocacy on behalf of sufferers and families.

“I am thrilled to join the clinical team at Eating Recovery Center to develop an innovative program focused on the specialized needs of children and adolescents with eating disorders,” said Dr. Bermudez. “Our approach will be sensitive to the developmental needs of each patient and address the medical, behavioral and psycho-social aspects of their eating disorder while working closely with each family — all important components of successful treatment and lasting recovery.”

Denver, Colo., now offers individuals with eating disorders a full spectrum of care overseen by the nation’s leading eating disorders clinicians. Drs. Johnson and Bermudez join Eating Recovery Center founders, Drs. Weiner and Bishop, recognized experts with more than 50 years combined expertise, in providing inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient and outpatient services at Eating Recovery Center’s facilities. A partnership with Denver Health’s A.C.U.T.E. eating disorders program, directed by Philip Mehler, MD, CEDS, an expert in the medical complications of eating disorders, enables Eating Recovery Center to collaboratively provide care for severely medically compromised eating disorders patients.

About Eating Recovery Center
Eating Recovery Center is a national center for eating disorders recovery providing comprehensive treatment for anorexia and bulimia. Denver-based facilities include a licensed behavioral hospital treating adults, an outpatient office and a facility treating children and adolescents scheduled to open in November 2010. Under the personal guidance and care of Drs. Weiner and Bishop, and the newest additions to our leadership team — Drs. Craig Johnson and Ovidio Bermudez, our collaborative programs provide a full spectrum of services for children, adolescents and adults. Our integrated program offers patients from across the country a continuum of care that includes inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient and outpatient services. Our compassionate team of professionals collaborates with treating professionals and loved ones to cultivate lasting behavioral change. For more information please contact us at 877-218-1344 or [email protected] or confidentially chat live on our website at www.EatingRecoveryCenter.com.

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SCHAUMBURG, IL–(Marketwire – September 7, 2010) –  Network Services Company, an international organization of health care and janitorial supply distributors, recently announced the launch of Healthy Measures^™, a three-step consulting program to aid hospitals in the prevention of health care acquired infections (HAIs) while increasing patient satisfaction scores.

Partnering with health care facilities to assess their current conditions and cleaning practices, Healthy Measures (www.HealthyMeasuresOnline.com) is helping hospitals meet the standards and guidelines for housekeeping and hand hygiene recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC).

“Infections pose an extreme risk to patients during a hospital stay, especially if the patient is already in a vulnerable condition,” said Kevin Rudd, Network Services’ chief marketing officer. “We’ve designed Healthy Measures to be an industry-leading solution that enables hospitals to reduce infection rates, thereby safeguarding patients and improving overall patient satisfaction.”

The CDC estimates there are approximately 100,000 deaths suffered annually in the U.S. stemming from an estimated two million preventable HAIs. Some of the pathogens that result in HAIs, which have been found to be readily transmitted from environmental surfaces to health care workers’ hands and to patients, include C. difficile (Clostridium difficile), methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), acinetobacter, norovirus and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE). But implementation of a hand hygiene and surface sanitation program like Healthy Measures can result in dramatically lower rates of infection.

The Healthy Measures program is a three-step process comprised of:

• Interviews with key personnel to gain an understanding of the facility’s current culture and challenges related to infection prevention;
• Facility assessment focusing on patient, public and staff areas to gain an understanding of current processes and procedures, and products used;
• Implementation of a comprehensive and customized joint-action plan related to hand hygiene and surface sanitation.

“The Healthy Measures Program provides a second pair of eyes when evaluating a facility and emphasizes collaboration by working closely with hospital staff to arrive at a solution,” said Rudd. “As part of the comprehensive solution, we provide checklists, educational and training materials, customizable signage, monthly tips, association guidelines, hospital rating websites and access to extensive research.”

Research indicates HAIs have become a financial risk to both individual health care facilities and the nation’s health care industry. The average cost of one HAI to a hospital is $14,000, while the average cost to the U.S. health care industry is between $4.5 and $5.7 billion annually (Source: Stone, et al. American Journal of Infection Control 2002; 30:145-52).

“Disinfection of the hospital environment and patient care equipment are essential strategies to prevent the spread of HAIs,” said Blake Kite, director of environmental services at Banner Estrella Medical Center. “One of the biggest things that impressed me about Healthy Measures was that we could decide upon our own action plan. We felt included in the process and part of the solution.”

About Network Services Company
Schaumburg, Ill.-based Network Services Company is a member-owned distribution network of more than 75 member-distributors with combined annual revenue of more than $12 billion. Members include distributors of janitorial supplies and equipment, as well as foodservice disposables and industrial packaging supplies and equipment. For more information about Network Services, please visit www.nsconline.com.

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BETHESDA, MD–(Marketwire – September 3, 2010) – GetWellNetwork, Inc. today introduced a new pediatric Asthma Care Plan for children’s hospitals, available now through GetWell Town™. The Asthma Care Plan helps improve patient outcomes by engaging patients and their families by teaching them to successfully manage the disease at home, leading to fewer hospital stays and emergency department visits. The GetWell Town Asthma Care Plan is immediately available. 

Pediatric asthma is the most common chronic condition among children under 18, affecting more than 6 million children according to the American Lung Association. It has costly effects for both parents and children, costing nearly $719 million in parents’ loss of productivity and asthma related school absences⁽¹⁾. At the same time, it is a condition that can be managed successfully with proper education and care plan. 

“We are truly excited about launching the GetWell Town Asthma Care Plan. The Asthma Care Plan enables care providers to easily involve children and families in a comprehensive educational program that will be instrumental in preparing them to effectively manage their condition at home,” said Sandra Marken, director of nursing pediatrics, Cardon Children’s Medical Center. “We believe that actively engaging children and families in this care plan will result in a decrease of readmissions within 30 days post discharge.”

The new GetWell Town Asthma Care Plan engages parents and children starting at day of admission. It leverages award-winning asthma education videos from KidsHealth^® to educate patients on key concepts that prepare them for managing their condition at home. The Asthma Care Plan introduces information about the disease in four phases:

• Phase One: Patients are introduced to the basics of asthma and begin their in-patient education curriculum.
• Phase Two: Children learn about medications and tools that help manage their condition, and the common triggers to avoid such as second-hand smoke.
• Phase Three: Patients and families are instructed on how to create a safe home environment and taught self-monitoring techniques to recognize signs and symptoms of potential flare-ups; their Care Team also checks-in to monitor their progress through the Asthma Care Plan.
• Phase Four: Patients learn about the take-home Asthma Management Plan and the importance of completing a plan of action before discharge. Patients and family members can also repeat any of the four phases and contact staff members for assistance throughout the learning process.

“The interactive Asthma Care Plan truly allows hospital staff to incorporate condition-specific education throughout the entire care process. By allowing patients and families to progress through the educational plan on their own, they are likely to receive important information at the right time in their hospital stay to better understand their condition and how to manage it,” said Dr. Neil Izenberg, founder and editor-in-chief of KidsHealth. “We are excited that the comprehensiveness of the KidsHealth Asthma Care Suite fits so well into the GetWell Town Asthma Care Plan to create a standardized care plan for young asthma patients.”

“We are honored to work with our GetWellNetwork Children’s Hospital partners and KidsHealth to proactively engage patients and families in managing this condition post hospitalization,” said Shannon O’Neil, director, pediatric product line, GetWellNetwork, Inc. “Further we are confident that young patients who successfully complete the GetWell Town Asthma Care Plan will be better prepared to enjoy active participation in home and school activities.”

About KidsHealth^®

KidsHealth creates engaging online, print, and video media about a wide range of health and family issues in English and Spanish. KidsHealth licenses online content, which can be private-labeled and displayed on a licensee’s website. KidsHealth has a physician-directed, professional editorial staff — and is the largest resource of online children’s health, behavioral, and developmental information written for three distinct audiences: parents, kids, and teens. KidsHealth also creates KidsHealth in the Classroom, a free website for educators featuring standards-based health curricula, activities, handouts, and more. KidsHealth is part of Nemours, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit pediatric health systems. For more information about KidsHealth, please visit www.kidshealth.org/mktg/intro/.

About GetWell Town
GetWell Town was developed in collaboration with GetWellNetwork’s National Children’s Hospital Task Force, comprised of 15 pediatric facilities across the U.S. as well as direct input from pediatric patients and their families. GetWell Town is designed to complement the kid-friendly spaces that children’s hospitals have worked hard to create and features exclusive content in partnership with KidsHealth®, part of The Nemours Foundation’s Center for Children’s Health Media.

About GetWellNetwork
GetWellNetwork, Inc. uses the bedside TV to entertain, educate and empower hospital patients and caregivers to be more actively engaged in their care. This patient-centered approach improves both satisfaction and outcomes for patients and hospitals. GetWellNetwork is the leader in interactive patient care solutions and exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association. More information about GetWellNetwork can be found at www.GetWellNetwork.com.

(1) Wang LY, Zhong Y, Wheeler L. “Direct and Indirect Costs of Asthma in School-Age Children.” Preventing Chronic Disease, 2(1): [serial online], January 2005.

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REDWOOD CITY, CA–(Marketwire – September 1, 2010) – AeroScout, the leading provider of Unified Asset Visibility for the healthcare industry, today announced continued strong growth in its healthcare business, extending its global lead in the healthcare market. 2009 was a record year for AeroScout healthcare revenue, and subsequent to that, the first half of 2010 represented the strongest two quarters in the company’s history for AeroScout’s Healthcare Real-Time Location System (RTLS). In those two quarters, AeroScout received more than 200 orders for its healthcare solutions, which provide real-time visibility into the location, status and condition of assets, patients and staff, from healthcare organizations around the world. One of the main reasons for the rapid adoption is that, with AeroScout’s Wi-Fi RFID solutions, organizations are able to leverage their existing, standard Wi-Fi infrastructures instead of deploying and maintaining separate proprietary networks. 

“In addition to its comprehensive set of Healthcare RTLS solutions and integration capabilities, AeroScout offers hospitals the opportunity to save money while reducing risk and complexity by using their Wi-Fi networks instead of proprietary networks,” said Gregg Malkary, Managing Director of Spyglass. “This means its clients don’t need to purchase, wire and maintain an overlay network, and it has led to rapid growth for AeroScout and Wi-Fi RFID over the past few years.”

Complementing the Wi-Fi advantages, other factors that have contributed to AeroScout’s increasing market leadership include its track record with top hospitals and healthcare systems around the world, its robust suite of solutions, and the ease with which AeroScout solutions integrate with other healthcare information systems, hospital equipment and business processes.

AeroScout has completed implementations at hundreds of healthcare organizations, covering every major region of the world — North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The experience gained over the years from these customers and deployments has continued to increase AeroScout’s healthcare expertise and customer base. Examples of global healthcare customers include:

• Adventist Health System, Winter Park, Florida, USA
• Macquarie University Hospital, Sydney, Australia
• GZA Hospital Group, Antwerp, Belgium
• Akita University Hospital, Akita, Japan
• Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo, Brazil

AeroScout’s comprehensive solutions allow customers to work with a single, proven provider and implement one platform for all current and future asset, patient and staff visibility needs. This includes enterprise-wide asset and people tracking, room-level location, bay-level (sub-room) resolution, optional chokepoint detection, condition monitoring and passive RFID applications.

Focusing on the needs of its global healthcare customers, AeroScout is continuously expanding and enhancing its robust set of healthcare applications, which includes Asset Management, Condition Monitoring, Patient Flow and Patient & Staff Safety. For example, the company recently enhanced its Patient Flow and Patient & Staff Safety solutions by designing and producing the world’s smallest Wi-Fi Tag for patients and staff. AeroScout also supplemented its Condition Monitoring offerings with Humidity Monitoring Solutions, which include Wi-Fi Tags and end-user software.

AeroScout’s range of integrations with healthcare information systems is the broadest in the RTLS market. AeroScout offers integrations with nurse call systems, maintenance management systems, infusion pumps, security and building automation systems, VoIP communication devices and more. For example, AeroScout now integrates with the Rauland-Borg Responder 5 Nurse Call system to enable improved clinician efficiency and workflow. AeroScout also provides MobileView for VoIP Phones, which delivers AeroScout’s end-user software on VoIP communication devices to enhance staff productivity, mobility and communication.

“To serve our multiplying healthcare customer base, we continue to develop and enhance solutions to drive additional value for our clients,” said Yuval Bar-Gil, CEO of AeroScout. “Hospital and healthcare organizations across the globe are using AeroScout’s Wi-Fi-based solutions to reduce capital and operational expenses, increase staff efficiency, facilitate regulatory compliance and improve patient care.”

About AeroScout
AeroScout is the market leader in Unified Asset Visibility solutions. Customers improve operational efficiency using AeroScout products that leverage standard Wi-Fi networks to track and manage the location, condition and status of mobile assets and people. AeroScout’s global customer base consists of leading hospital, manufacturing and logistics organizations, including many of the Fortune 500. The company invented the first Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tag, and today is widely recognized as leading the market in number of deployments and tags shipped. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, AeroScout has offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America. For more information, please visit www.aeroscout.com.

AeroScout is a registered trademark of AeroScout, Inc. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Information is subject to change without notice.

MAUMEE, OH–(Marketwire – September 1, 2010) –  After completing several months of rigorous due diligence following the signing of a definitive agreement to bring the two organizations together, the transaction is now complete and St. Luke’s Hospital has officially become a member of ProMedica Health System.

“We are thrilled that St. Luke’s has joined ProMedica,” says Randy Oostra, President and CEO of ProMedica. “Both organizations are dedicated to achieving the same overarching Mission: to improve the health of the people we serve. St. Luke’s joining ProMedica will help facilitate collaborative endeavors to better address critical health and social needs throughout the community. In the near term and for generations to come, it is imperative that organizations such as ours seek to achieve more effective and efficient clinical integration as we expand access to exceptional care.” 

“We have a promise at St. Luke’s — ‘Patients First. Always.’ Becoming a member of ProMedica allows us to continue to expand on that proud tradition of service and compassionate care,” says Dan Wakeman, President/CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital. “Both organizations have much to learn and share with each other. We each have unique and distinguishing characteristics, and as we join ProMedica we have the opportunity to find synergies and build on the strengths of both our cultures.”

The most visible initial change the community and employees will notice is that St. Luke’s will now be included in the Paramount Health Care network. As a result, Paramount members and ProMedica employees will have access to St. Luke’s services. In addition, St. Luke’s employees will have access to ProMedica services and facilities through Medical Mutual’s Ohio SuperMed Plus network. 

“The due diligence we have conducted over the last several months has been intense and detailed,” says Barbara Steele, President, Acute Care, ProMedica Health System. “Yet, in many ways, the work starts now as teams begin the process of analyzing which services should be integrated to achieve efficiencies.”

The goal of service line and clinical integration is to:

• provide convenient and easier access to programs and services;
• provide a comprehensive continuum of care;
• enhance the physician’s ability to care for patients and improve quality-of-life issues;
• look for opportunities to create “Best in Class” programs to better serve patients and communities; and
• evaluate ways to add value to existing services.

“Nationwide, resources are shrinking while the need for top-quality health care has never been higher,” says Oostra. “With St. Luke’s as a member of ProMedica, we will be better able to proactively provide more effective and efficient coordination of care — and that will position us ahead of the health care reform curve and help meet the critical needs of our communities.”

About St. Luke’s Hospital
Located in Maumee, St. Luke’s Hospital is a full-service community hospital. Each year, this non-profit health care organization cares for more than 235,000 patients. Its 1,500 employees and 600 physicians provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services including high-risk cardiac surgery, oncology, labor and delivery, medical/surgical, critical and emergency care.

St. Luke’s is the only hospital in northwest Ohio to be ISO 9001:2008 certified, representing a highly collaborative accrediting process that encourages innovation in health care. The hospital is regularly recognized by third-party quality ratings organizations that rank St. Luke’s within the top 10% of hospitals nationally, based on outcomes, cost and patient satisfaction. For more information, visit www.stlukeshospital.com

About ProMedica Health System
ProMedica Health System, a mission-based organization that is ranked among the Top 5 most integrated health systems in the U.S., was formed in 1986 and is a Toledo, Ohio-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization with nearly 15,000 employees; 2,900 physicians and more than 283 facilities in Ohio and Michigan. ProMedica serves more than 2.4 million patients annually and includes 10 hospitals; ProMedica Continuum Services with senior, hospice, rehabilitation, and integrative services; ProMedica Physician Group, a network of more than 300 primary care, obstetrics and specialist physicians; and Paramount Health Care, the largest HMO in northwest Ohio. For more information, please visit www.promedica.org.

HILLSIDE, NJ–(Marketwire – September 1, 2010) – Infirmed children at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey, will get to talk via a video connection with U.S.A.F. Air Combat Command Pilots, and view aerial demonstrations, before the official start of the “Thunder Over the Blue Ridge Open House & Air Show” in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The video event takes place 1-2 PM EDT on Friday, September 3, 2010 at the Giggles Children’s Theatre, located at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, 703 Main Street, Paterson, NJ. This opportunity is sponsored by “Operation: Aviators for Kids,” a partnership involving a Cisco video connection provided by Core BTS, managed services donated by Glowpoint, and Polycom videoconferencing end-point technology provided by Medical Missions for Children at the Giggles Children’s Theater.

About “Thunder Over the Blue Ridge” Open House & Air Show
The 167th Airlift Wing is proud to be hosting the “Thunder Over the Blue Ridge Open House & Air Show” on September 4 – 5, 2010. Building on the success of the 2008 Spirit of America Over Martinsburg Air Show, the 167th Airlift Wing, along with the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport and the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle, will be bringing together some of the nation’s most exciting aerial demonstration teams, including the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, U.S. Air Force A-10 Demo East, U.S. Navy F-18 Hornet, and U.S. Army Golden Knights.

About St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital
St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center is a leader in comprehensive health care for children. Recognized for our high standard of quality responsive and compassionate pediatric care, St. Joseph’s is a state designated children’s hospital offering a broad spectrum of services for patients from birth to 21 years of age — and their families.

When children are ill or injured, their condition and treatment can affect their overall development in ways that are important to foresee. That is why we say we “treat the whole child,” and have implemented a team approach to treatment. The various pediatric specialists at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital share their knowledge and experience to identify and anticipate complications that may impact the child’s state-of-mind and future development.

Blazing new paths in leading-edge technology and care, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital practices family-centered care. We strive to make children and families feel safe and to help them understand, and cope with, the challenges of illness.

About Glowpoint
Glowpoint, Inc. (OTCBB: GLOW) enables video users to effortlessly and securely call one another regardless of their video technology or network. With unlimited, “open” access to Glowpoint’s cloud-based, hosted-video infrastructure and services, video calling within — and between — companies is dramatically simplified. From full-featured telepresence and video conferencing suites to desktop video, Glowpoint supports customers around the world with 24/7 managed services that allow business professionals to enjoy “in-the-same-room” intimacy and cost savings. To see a video-in-the-cloud demonstration, and to learn more about how cost-effective and easy telepresence and video conferencing can be for your business, email us at [email protected] or visit http://www.glowpoint.com.

About Core BTS, Inc.
Core BTS, Inc. is a business technology infrastructure company that first seeks to understand you and your business, then helps you utilize technology to move your business forward. Headquartered in Madison, WI with 11 offices in six states, Core BTS delivers unified communications, data center, video, enterprise architecture and security solutions. See www.corebts.com to find an office near you or contact our headquarters at [email protected] or by phone at (608) 661-7700.

About Medical Missions for Children
Founded in 1999, Medical Missions for Children is dedicated to the mission of providing quality healthcare to critically-ill children throughout the world. It is an organization that knows no geographic boundaries and to date has successfully implemented 108 medical treatment and education programs in as many countries. Tapping into the volunteer spirit of the North American medical community, MMC hosts a consultative and educational support network for healthcare providers in developing nations who often lack the resources and specialty knowledge needed to successfully diagnosis and treat an infinite number of medical conditions.

The name of MMC’s communications infrastructure is the Global Telemedicine & Teaching Network™ (GTTN). The GTTN is a satellite- and Internet-based communications system that features an ever-expending digitized, video-based medical library, a global satellite-broadcast TV station (Medical Broadcast Channel – MBC), and an Internet Protocol (IP) supported, real-time, videoconference-based, remote diagnostics capability. The distribution of medical knowledge transported across the GTTN is supported by a network of 27 U.S.-based medical institutions, whose medical expertise is leveraged first to support a fully interactive telemedicine system and secondly to build a repository of medical content that is subsequently broadcast over MMC’s satellite and Internet2 distribution platforms. The GTTN is also used to broadcast live and pre-recorded child entertainment programming designed to touch the lives of hospitalized children throughout the U.S. and overseas.

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EVANSTON, IL–(Marketwire – September 1, 2010) –  Custom health communications company StayWell Custom Communications (SCC), a division of MediMedia USA, has announced that Bob Noel has joined the organization as Vice President of Professional Services.

In his new role, Noel will spearhead the company’s consulting services to help clients achieve best of class implementation of StayWell Custom Communications’ content and cross-media solutions in order to achieve business results.

Noel brings a wealth of professional services experience to the position, including work as
a consultant with more than 100 hospitals and healthcare organizations. He was a co-founder and Executive Vice President of Greystone.Net, Inc., where he provided consulting services to assist clients in the implementation and integration of the Greystone online consumer health information libraries.

Noel’s previous experience also includes working as a Senior Manager in the health care consulting practice of Ernst & Young and as an Assistant Administrator at the University of Alabama in Birmingham Medical Center. He earned a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. 

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Bob Noel to our team and look forward to the value he’ll bring our clients in their implementation of our solutions,” said StayWell Custom Communications president and CEO Trent Sterling. “With more options than ever for integration of our content across multiple channels and strategies — including SEO, social media, mobile and electronic medical records — it’s increasingly important that our clients undertake a rigorous approach to integration in order to realize the full value of our solutions.”

About StayWell Custom Communications

StayWell Custom Communications is the leader in custom health content solutions delivered via a variety of sophisticated technology platforms. Our interactive offerings include robust web platforms, online health libraries, e-mail and SMS (or mobile) marketing programs, and an extensive range of multimedia tools including video, podcasts and animations. The company serves hundreds of clients representing several channels in the healthcare industry: hospitals and health systems; health plans; employers; and retail organizations. StayWell Custom Communications also offers a comprehensive range of print and print/interactive integrated solutions to meet a broad range of clients’ marketing and communication needs. 

For more information visit www.staywellcustom.com.

About MediMedia

Headquartered in Yardley, PA, with 1,700 employees in offices throughout the U.S., MediMedia changes consumer and professional behaviors through superior engagement, education and end-user preferences. Our health information services group creates, publishes, distributes, and syndicates on and off-line health information to help consumers make informed health decisions on behalf of a variety of sponsors, including providers — both hospitals and physicians, payers, and online media companies. Our health management services group provides population health management services which help consumers lower their health risk, enabling employers to lower their risks, utilization and ultimately their health care expenses. And finally, our professional segment derives its revenues from providing online/off-line professional promotion, engagement, and education services targeted to healthcare professionals and their patients.

MediMedia is a Vestar Capital Partners portfolio company.