BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Siemens Communications, Inc., today announced the HiPath(R) Healthcare Solution HiMed product that features a bedside television monitor providing patients with entertainment, communications and browser-based access to important educational information. For medical staff, the HiMed solution provides smart-card access to the clinical information system, at the patient's bed side.
The HiMed solution integrates a clinical point-of-entry computing device with a patient entertainment display terminal, without the need to deploy and maintain a dedicated multimedia PC workstation at each bed. For patients, the solution combines nurse call, telephone services, room lighting controls and entertainment (including television, video, Internet surfing, games and radio). When used by clinical staff, the system converts to a point-of-care access device to retrieve essential patient data. Access is controlled via personalized smart cards.
"The use of patient information systems at the bed side, like the Siemens HiMed solution, will have a significant impact on health care," said Richard Hathaway, a principal with RHL Telecom Solutions, LLC. "Clinical information system access at the bed side will dramatically improve productivity and enhance patient care. Equally important, these systems provide essential information services to patients."
The HiMed solution integrates with communication solutions and IP platforms made by Siemens and other vendors. The HiMed solution can leverage existing health care cabling infrastructures and includes compact bedside monitors supported by a centralized media server with multiple gateways to local area networks (LANs), clinical information systems, telephony and broadcast media. System access through the bedside monitors is accessed via smart card security technology and helps healthcare organizations meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JACHO) regulations and requirements.
Since 1990, Siemens Communications group of companies has installed, in Europe, about 900 HiMed systems with more than 5,000 bedside units. In the United States, Siemens is entering a largely untapped market for bedside point-of-entry computing devices and entertainment solutions. A recent Datamonitor report, for example, indicates that 75 percent of all U.S. health care organizations - including more than 6,000 hospitals as well as ambulatory care centers, laboratories and long-term care facilities - will be investing in electronic medical record solutions over the next three years. Siemens believes that growth in this market will be boosted by standard initiatives to provide more bedside access to clinical data as well as by government incentives to make electronic medical records a standard of care.
For health care providers, the HiMed solution has many advantages over traditional PC stations on roll-about carts:
-- Time is not wasted pushing carts from room-to-room.
-- Quicker access to vital online information (clinical, regulatory, procedural and educational) at the point of care.
-- Physicians and nurses do not have to log in and out of different systems.
-- There are no concerns about short battery life, memory and transmission limitations: major disadvantage of mobile systems.
-- Each member of the staff is provided a personalized smart card that is inserted into the device for retrieving medical information.
-- Patients use personalized smart cards to enable billable entertainment and communication services.
-- Serves as a new revenue opportunity for multimedia services.
For patients, the HiMed solution advantages include:
-- Multimedia patient education services.
-- Higher quality entertainment options including phone, television and Internet services.
-- Nurse call and overhead lighting controls.
-- Personal messaging services.
-- Easy access to registration and patient information.
-- E-commerce options for equipment rentals and other health care products.
-- Dietary ordering and services.
HiPath Healthcare Solution HiMed product will be on display (Booth 617) at the Health Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2005 Annual Conference & Exhibition, February 13-17, at the Dallas Convention Center. The HiMed solution is scheduled to be available, within the United States, during the first half of 2005.
About Siemens
Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) is one of the largest global electronics and engineering companies with reported worldwide sales of $91.5 billion in fiscal 2004. Founded more than 150 years ago, the company is a leader in the areas of Medical, Power, Automation and Control, Transportation, Information and Communications, Lighting, Building Technologies, Water Technologies and Services and Home Appliances. With its U.S. corporate headquarters in New York City, Siemens in the USA has sales of $16.6 billion and employs 70,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Eleven of Siemens' worldwide businesses are based in the United States. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens AG and its subsidiaries employ 430,000 people in 192 countries. For more information on Siemens in the United States: www.usa.siemens.com
About Siemens Communications, Inc.
Siemens Communications, Inc., offers its customers a broad portfolio of communication products and services and is a leader in convergent technologies, products and services for wireless, fixed and enterprise networks. The company's portfolio ranges from devices for end users to complex network infrastructures and complementary services for enterprises, carriers and service providers. Siemens Communications, Inc., is headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla. For more information, visit www.usa.siemens.com/communications
Note: HiPath is a registered trademark of Siemens AG or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
|