RadarFind Gives Hospitals New Tools To Contain Infectious Disease

Released on: January 29, 2008, 6:09 am

Press Release Author: RadarFind

Industry: Healthcare

Press Release Summary: The hospital-focused design of the RadarFind Real Time
Location System (RTLS) empowers hospitals to deploy the indoor tracking system as
part of their overall infection control efforts.

Press Release Body: MORRISVILLE, N.C. (January 29, 2008) - The hospital-focused
design of the RadarFind Real Time Location System (RTLS) empowers hospitals to
deploy the indoor tracking system as part of their overall infection control
efforts.
While other companies offer Real Time Location Systems designed to help hospital
staff more quickly locate critical patient care equipment, only RadarFind provides
valuable, accurate information about a device's status and location history, which
can assist a hospital's infection control and surveillance.

RadarFind's unique asset tag provides status information in two ways. First, when a
staff member moves a simple slider switch to indicate that a medical device (such as
an infusion pump) is available, in-use or needs cleaning, the tag communicates this
information to the RadarFind server, which displays that piece of equipment as green
(available), yellow (in use with a patient) or red (needs cleaning) on RadarFind's
locator maps and reports. Second, because the tags themselves include a color-coded
bar, staff have a visual cue on each tagged device to quickly determine that
equipment is disinfected and available for patient use.

"The ability of our system to provide real-time status information about medical
equipment sets it apart from other systems and allows RadarFind to play an
instrumental role in hospital infection control efforts," said Terry Kane, M.D.,
chief executive officer for RadarFind.

RadarFind was developed after two years of intensive, physician-guided research and
development focused specifically on the needs of hospitals. RadarFind offers clear
advantages over other systems in the marketplace in terms of superior technology,
accuracy, ease of installation and affordability.
Designed to seamlessly integrate with existing hospital infrastructure and
operations, the system requires no new wiring and operates independently of a
hospital's critical IT network. RadarFind's readers (locators) plug into existing
hospital-grade electrical outlets, with the outlets still available for other
electrical devices. These readers communicate with advanced ID tags affixed to
equipment and the intuitive tracking software simply displays information on
hospital staff's screens.

Establishing a Pattern for Infection Prevention

Part of the challenge busy hospitals face is locating and cleaning critical
equipment, and documenting that it has been properly disinfected prior to being used
by another patient. The RadarFind system quickly conveys equipment location and
status via any employee-accessed computer.
However, the system can also track and report a particular device's time-stamped
location history and correlate that with specific patients, especially those who
have contracted antibiotic-resistant infections. Causal relationships between
contaminated medical devices and infected patients can be easily determined and
additional preventative measures can be introduced to reduce device contamination.

"Put simply, a real-time location system that fails to alert patient care providers
when a piece of equipment needs to be sanitized overlooks a potentially significant
culprit in the spread of disease within hospitals," said Vincent Carrasco, M.D.,
chief medical officer for RadarFind.

At Halifax Regional Medical Center (HRMC), a 206-bed facility located in
Northeastern North Carolina, nursing staff look forward to using RadarFind to
improve their efforts to protect patients from the spread of infection.

"Just knowing where equipment is and its status will help in so many ways, not the
least of which is infection control," explained Vice President of Nursing Karen
Daniels, RN, at HRMC. "By being able to identify equipment we can insure that only
clean, processed equipment is ever brought into a patient room. Equipment used in an
isolation room also can be clearly identified and properly decontaminated before
being moved from isolation."

Current Events Highlight the Need

Current news stories about the spread of drug-resistant "superbugs" have highlighted
the seriousness of controlling the spread of infections that strike patients while
in a hospital (referred to by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
as hospital-acquired infections). According to the CDC, there are an estimated 1.7
million hospital-acquired infections each year which result in approximately 90,000
deaths. A recent study in Emerging Infectious Diseases found that hospital-acquired
infections are the sixth leading cause of death nationally, costing the health care
industry $6 billion annually. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a
widely publicized type of antibiotic-resistant hospital-acquired infection, can cost
hospitals roughly $30,000 per case. Brad Sokol, CEO of Fast Track Technologies, a
health care consulting firm, has estimated that our nation suffers 13,000 to 26,000
thousand deaths annually from infection caused by contaminated medical devices and
instruments.

About RadarFind

RadarFind Corporation, an information technology company focused on the health care
industry, offers a unique, patent-pending Real Time Location System that uses a
platform technology for tracking medical equipment and patients. Headquartered in
North Carolina, RadarFind will be exhibiting during the Healthcare Information and
Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference at Booth #7653, February 24 -28
in Orlando, Florida. For more information please call (919) 228-2100 or visit
www.radarfind.com.
###


Web Site: http://www.radarfind.com

Contact Details: Amanda Denton
1007 Slater Road
Suite 150
Durham, NC 27703
(919) 459-6456
amanda@largemouthpr.com

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