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Hospitals Across the Globe Are Implementing the Awarix Patient Care Visibility System

Posted on: Thursday, 22 February 2007, 12:01 CST

Hospitals worldwide are turning to patient care visibility systems in an effort to address universal challenges such as optimizing patient care capacity, improving employee workflow and enhancing clinical quality, while reducing costs.

Barmbek Hospital, a "digital hospital of the future" in Hamburg, Germany, and Lagos De Moreno Hospital, a facility in Jalisco, Mexico, have already adopted the Awarix patient care visibility system, while more than 50 other health care organizations from around the world have shown substantial interest in the company's groundbreaking technology.

"Regardless of the structure of the health care delivery system or the financial model that is in place in various countries, every hospital is interested in maximizing capacity, improving quality and reducing costs. These are major concerns in any language," said Scott McFarland, CEO. "As a matter of fact, clinical quality is under the microscope in countries across the globe, not just in the United States."

To help health care providers address these issues, the Awarix patient care visibility system uses a visualization platform and location technology (such as ultrasound and radio frequency identification) to provide real-time information on patient location, room status and clinical events. As a result, all hospital staff members can obtain vital patient information simply by glancing at electronic whiteboards, which are placed throughout the hospital. The system provides status information on more than 75 clinical and administrative processes.

By visually broadcasting the status of various important processes, the system enables all staff members to take appropriate action at all times and immediate corrective action when problems, abnormalities or deviations from standards are visible.

For example, nurses can take a quick glance at the whiteboard and discover that the patient in room 558 has a new order; has a new result; is at fall risk; and is scheduled for discharge at 1:30 p.m. With such information, they can then immediately and intuitively prioritize their work, making sure that patients receive optimal service.

The Awarix system has quickly proven its value with early adopters. In less than six months after installation, Awarix hospitals have experienced revenue increases of more than $5 million, patient volume jumps of more than 12%, bed turn rate improvements of 19%, and eliminated emergency department diversion. Clinicians also have noted that the system is helping to improve quality of care as well.

About Awarix

Awarix, Birmingham, Ala., is the leading developer of enterprise patient care visibility systems, a new category of health care technology that enables hospitals and integrated delivery networks to streamline throughput, improve caregiver effectiveness and increase patient satisfaction. The Awarix system provides a 360 degree view of the patient's status in real time via electronic patient care communication "whiteboards" that present real-time information about patients' locations, the status of patients' various tests results, updates on patient safety issues and the expected time of the patients' discharges. By presenting a graphic representation of the hospital's floor plan, clinicians and other users can determine exactly what is happening with patients simply by glancing at the whiteboards. Location technology and geospatial visual technologies are integrated with existing clinical systems to create this synthesized single view of patient status. With the Awarix system, health care providers have been able to quickly increase revenues via increased capacity, eliminate emergency department diversion, improve patient care quality and enhance employee and patient satisfaction.

Source: Business Wire

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