Catholic Healthcare Partners Selects Awarix Enterprise Patient Care Visibility Solution

Business Wire, June 11, 2007

Hospitals expect to enhance patient throughput, quality of care and workflow management with groundbreaking system

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Catholic Healthcare Partners, a 29- hospital integrated delivery network based in Cincinnati, is implementing an innovative visual control system from Awarix in an effort to improve patient throughput and quality of care.

"By providing this innovative technology to our hospital caregivers, we can significantly and positively impact patient flow by reducing inherent delays in the patient care process," says Becky Sykes, CIO of Catholic Healthcare Partners. "The system also will help give caregivers access to the real time information needed to provide optimal care and service to our patients."

The Awarix patient care visibility system initially will be implemented at four of the health system's facilities--St. Vincent's Medical Center (400 beds) in Toledo, Ohio, Mercy Fairfield (335 beds) in Cincinnati and two St. Mary's facilities (450 beds combined) in Knoxville, Tenn.--and could possibly be deployed to other Catholic Healthcare hospitals in the future.

With this groundbreaking technology in place, all hospital staff members have around-the-clock access to visual controls, enabling them to immediately obtain vital patient information simply by glancing at electronic whiteboards, which are placed throughout the facility. A visual communication platform receives real time information from location technologies (Ultrasound & RFID) and traditional computer programs on approximately 75 administrative and clinical processes including patient location, room status, core measures and clinical results.

For example, nurses can take a quick glance at the whiteboard and discover that the patient in room 335 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 more efficiently and effectively perform clinical duties.

The system is expected to improve hospital capacity management and quality of care, according to Sykes. Other early adopters of the Awarix system have reported revenue increases in excess of $5 million, patient volume jumps of more than 12% and bed turn rate improvements of more than 19%.

The Awarix system stood out from other options because of the technology's easy-to- understand visual displays, real-time information and integration simplicity, according to Sykes.

"Catholic Health Partners is a very technologically advanced health system so we are proud to have been selected to partner with them in this important initiative," says Scott McFarland, CEO and President of Awarix. "Our system solves a huge problem for today's health care organizations: Namely access to real time information. Our patient care visibility system provides clinicians and other hospital staff members with access to pertinent information making it possible for them to make better clinical decisions and to manage patients and resources more effectively."

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 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.

About Catholic Healthcare Partners

Catholic Healthcare Partners (www.health-partners.org) consists of more than 100 organizations that serve the healthcare needs of persons in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and contiguous states. Nine CHP regions, six of which are in Ohio, oversee integrated health systems, acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, housing sites for the elderly, home health, hospice, outreach programs, wellness centers and other organizations that provide diversified healthcare services. CHP is sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, Regional Community of Cincinnati; Sisters of Mercy, Mid-Atlantic Community, Merion Station, PA; the Sisters of the Humility of Mary, Villa Maria, PA; the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, Brooklyn, NY; and Covenant Health Systems, Lexington, MA.