Care Fusion to Provide Wireless Barcode Positive Patient ID Solutions to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children

Business Wire, Feb 9, 2005

MCLEAN, Va. -- Hospital Seeks to Add Technology to Meet Current Patient Safety Initiatives

Care Fusion announced an agreement today with Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children to provide wireless, mobile barcode technology solutions at the point of care. Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, located in Dallas, Texas is one of the nation's leading pediatric centers for the treatment of orthopedic conditions and learning disorders, like dyslexia, and provides ongoing care for more than 14,000 children each year. Children from Texas are not charged for treatment at the hospital.

When the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) proposed the possibility of requiring the use of barcode technology for patient identification back in early 2004, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children put plans in motion to begin evaluating such technologies. JCAHO and other patient safety initiatives throughout the United States prompted the hospital's Computer Task force, comprised of members of Information Systems, Pharmacy, Laboratory and Inpatient Nursing to search for a positive patient identification and safety solution.

The hospital evaluated other barcode vendors but felt that one that utilized a highly mobile handheld device made more sense in its environment than having to roll a computer cart with a laptop around. "Care Fusion's applications are very user friendly. On a visit to a live site, the nurses we spoke with were pleased with the implementation process and the level of support that Care Fusion provided. These were major factors in our decision," says hospital Administrative Director Debbie Sayles. "We knew we wanted a barcode solution from the start because we already have barcodes on our badges and a lot of the medications coming out already have barcodes on them," noted Sayles.

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children has contracted Care Fusion to provide wCareMed(TM) to support medication administration, allergy warnings, safety alerts and complex IVs, wCareCollect(TM) to verify and label lab specimens and wCareAssist(TM) to record vital signs and patient care information. The hospital also noted that it may look into adding wBloodCare(TM) to verify blood products prior to transfusion in the future now that Care Fusion has obtained 510(k) clearance for the product from the FDA.

Care Fusion also offers wCareView(TM) for a consolidated view of patient data, and wCareCapture(TM) for point of care supply billing. All applications are available on one handheld device.

All Care Fusion applications will be on display in booth #7025 at the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) meeting February 14-17 at the Dallas Convention Center.

Care Fusion. One vendor. One device. Many Powerful Solutions.

For more information on Care Fusion's wireless barcode solutions, visit www.carefusion.com.