BATESVILLE, Ind., Feb. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hill-Rom, a leading global provider of solutions for the patient-care environment, announced today the newest release of its NaviCare(R) Patient Flow System, adding the industry's first integrated enterprise system designed to manage and improve the flow of patients, staff and other resources, optimizing health care resource utilization and capacity.
The NaviCare(R) System's new Care Traffic Control(TM) Module is a first- of-its-kind, integrated system of managing bed supply and demand, patient transport and environmental services. This provides caregivers, management and support staff real-time access to critical information, such as patient location, room turnover time and bed availability. The new Care Traffic Control(TM) Module supports inpatient, ambulatory, procedure and emergency areas and is also available in a Platinum edition to provide enhanced capability across all areas of the hospital.
Hill-Rom's NaviCare(R) System -- found in one study to have contributed to a hospital realizing $5 million in annual savings -- uses colorful display monitors that depict a continuous, up-to-date picture of capacity and patient flow within the health care facility, similar to information systems used in the air transportation industry. It instantly becomes the "central nervous system" of the health care facility.
In addition, the NaviCare(R) Patient Flow System now features the Vocera(R) Communication System, which allows caregivers in hospitals equipped with Wi-Fi networks to communicate with the NaviCare(R) system via wearable Vocera(R) badges. Caregivers can input data and receive real-time messages and alerts while on the go, reducing the time spent away from the patient.
"We are excited about the ability to bring additional value to our customers in this way," said Don Maier, vice president of Hill-Rom's Services Division. "Extending the NaviCare Patient Flow System -- already broadly deployed in surgery, lab, emergency department and ambulatory settings -- to include inpatient environments means our customers can now manage patient flow throughout the enterprise and across their entire continuum of care delivery."
Hill-Rom's vision is a real-time care environment that optimizes resource utilization and improves efficiency in the care environment by integrating real-time connections between products and solutions and delivering actionable information to the right people at the right time. This helps hospital staff care for patients more safely, efficiently and effectively.
Hill-Rom is in the process of interconnecting its portfolio of communication and patient flow solutions, along with its intelligent bed and therapy surface products, so they can share information among themselves and with other hospital products and systems. Connecting equipment, systems and solutions together in an intelligent, scalable open architecture will help optimize a hospital's efficiency and resource utilization.
NaviCare(R) System solutions integrate with and augment existing hospital systems. Care Traffic Control(TM) features a turn-key monthly lease program that includes hardware and core patient-flow management features, while a Platinum edition is comprised of advanced process mapping, length-of-stay monitoring, discharge planning and staff-ratio monitoring.
Care Traffic Control(TM) Module is Hill-Rom's direct response to a health care facility's most critical unmet needs. Emergency department overcrowding, long thought to be the result of inefficient emergency departments, is now viewed as a systemic hospital-wide patient flow problem. The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) has issued a new standard (LD.3.15) on Managing Patient Flow, and now measures leadership progress towards identifying and mitigating impediments to efficient patient flow.
With the Care Traffic Control(TM) Module, caregivers and case managers can anticipate the timely flow of patients into critical care units, step-down nursing units and, ultimately, to their home. This creates usable bed capacity, allowing admissions that might have been diverted.
A study by Cap Gemini Ernst and Young found Hill-Rom's NaviCare(R) system provided a full return on investment in less than 6 months. After United Hospital of St. Paul, Minn., implemented a series of initiatives designed to streamline patient flow, including investment in the NaviCare(R) system, the Cap Gemini study found the hospital realized benefits valued at $5 million annually, and is now better positioned to manage capacity, accommodate growth, provide efficient care, and manage resources.
Other hospitals have had similar results. In Oct. 2004, the NaviCare Care Traffic Control Module was installed at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Ga.
"Our past experience with this technology strategy, using different pieces from other vendors, has been mixed, with little impact on overall hospital operations," said Steve Stanic, vice president and chief information officer at Memorial Health. "NaviCare's integration of bed, transport and environmental services management into a single patient flow product -- which is used by our physicians, nurses and support staff -- is a significant advance of the state-of-the-art technology. It has been only a few months since we went live, but many benefits are already evident. We are pleased with our results and see great promise for continuing advances."
About Hill-Rom
Hill-Rom helps healthcare professionals safely deliver effective and efficient care to their patients in acute care, long-term care and home care environments. The company's extensive product and service offering includes: patient care beds, stretchers, therapeutic surfaces and devices, workflow solutions, nurse communication systems, headwalls and facility assessments.
In addition, the company provides comprehensive asset management programs and on-demand medical equipment rental utilizing its 200 service centers located strategically throughout the United States. The company also offers expert clinical and equipment services and programs that can help improve asset productivity, operational efficiency and patient outcomes. Hill-Rom's global headquarters is based in Batesville, Ind., and employs approximately 6,500 people worldwide. It is an operating company of Hillenbrand Industries (NYSE:HB) .
About Vocera Communications
Vocera Communications provides wireless communications system that enable instant voice communication among mobile workers to leading institutions and companies requiring enhanced customer service, productivity, and teamwork. The company, headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., was founded in March 2000. For more information, please contact the company at (408) 790-4100, or visit the Web site at http://www.vocera.com/ .
About Memorial Health University Medical Center
Memorial Health University Medical Center, located in Savannah, GA, is a 530-bed tertiary medical center serving a 35-county area in southeast Georgia and South Carolina. Memorial Health and is a J.D. Powers and Associates Distinguished Hospital and has been on Fortune Magazine's list of "100 Best Companies To Work For" two years in a row. Memorial Health has been named one of the nation's Most Wired hospitals for the fifth consecutive year, and one of the nation's Most Wireless for the first time, according to the 2004 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study released today by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, the journal of the American Hospital Association (AHA).
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