NEC Solutions America Rolls Out Patient Safety Consulting and Professional Services Practice for Health Care; Latest Offering Significantly Expands Company's Solutions Portfolio for Hospitals and Health Care Systems

Business Wire, May 4, 2005

ORLANDO, Fla. -- NEC Solutions (America) Inc., a premier provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America, today unveiled its Patient Safety Consulting and Professional Services practice, designed to help health care organizations achieve operational excellence through technological innovation, workflow enhancement and business process re-engineering. The announcement comes as NEC Solutions America (NECSAM) highlights its solutions at the Seventh Annual National Patient Safety Foundation Congress.

The new practice area is another significant expansion of NECSAM's Health Care Solutions Division's offerings, which range from its TouchPass(R) Secure Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions, to the Vocera(R) wearable, instant voice communications technology with medical interpretation services, to its PersonalPass(TM) Automated Patient Identification and Admissions solution unveiled last month.

In announcing the Patient Safety Consulting and Professional Services practice, the division advances its efforts to deliver hospital systems and health care payers with tools, solutions and services to improve security, safety and communication, with the goal of measurably improving patient safety, quality of care and reducing administrative costs.

"NEC Solutions America offers advanced technology and solutions that address the current and future needs of health care organizations," said Lauryn Jones, general manager, Health Care Solutions Division, NEC Solutions America. "Advanced technology is only part of what drives change and improved performance. To fully realize the benefits of advanced technology, the solution must include the integration of workflow and human factors. Our highly credentialed, health care industry experts have a deep understanding of hospital operations, organizational structure and the unique challenges of the environment. Our mission is to optimize the value our customers achieve from investments in technology and skilled clinical staff, and provide fully integrated solutions that help them accelerate patient safety and quality improvement."

Today's announcement occurs parallel to an ongoing series of private, NEC-sponsored Patient Safety Executive Roundtable meetings that have featured thought leaders from top health care organizations sharing their challenges, successes, and goals in a group setting. The first NEC roundtables took place last fall in San Jose, Calif., and in February 2005 in San Francisco. Participants included senior executives from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Baylor Healthcare System, National Patient Safety Foundation, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), University of California at San Francisco, Harvard University, Kaiser Permanente, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Veterans Health Administration, and Glendale Adventist Medical Center. The next roundtable is planned for early fall 2005.

As part of its new Patient Safety Consulting and Professional Services practice, NEC Solutions America offers credentialed, experienced health care professionals to assist health care organizations in achieving and sustaining measurable improvements in performance across the service spectrum. NEC's health care consultants and educators are senior professionals with hands-on experience in hospital, ambulatory and managed care settings.

NEC's Patient Safety Consulting and Professional Services will initially focus on four areas central to our customer's investments and initiatives to improve quality and patient safety:

--Systems -- Helping organizations achieve clinical excellence and transformation through process re-design, including the integration of clinical applications and IT solutions with new and existing workflow and human processes;

--Transformation -- Assisting health care organizations in achieving and maintaining their competitive advantage and improving patient safety through culture and leadership transformation;

--Compliance -- Working hand-in-hand with health care facilities to ensure required regulatory and accreditation compliance and assist with the completion of site survey and other regulatory reporting forms

--Metrics -- Developing and demonstrating improved outcomes resulting in improved financial performance, increased overall patient satisfaction, and enhanced clinical performance equivalent to national best practices

NEC's initial areas of focus are closely aligned with several, more far-reaching initiatives highly applicable to health care providers, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), state peer review organizations, the National Quality Forum (NQF) and Leapfrog.

"The needs of the health care community ultimately highlight two areas: the efficiency and compliance of health care organizations, and the preeminent goal of patient safety," said Phil Scarfo, senior vice president, Public Sector and Health Care Solutions Divisions, NEC Solutions America. "NEC Solutions America's offerings are designed to serve these ends, conclusively and comprehensively. However, a consultative, hands-on, service-oriented practice truly fulfills our vision of partnering with health care organizations to provide a 360 degree answer to their current challenges, and an expansive, forward-looking roadmap to their future success."