Initial 2,600 Tag Deployment is First Under Preferred Provider Relationship With University HealthSystems Consortium

RESTON, Virginia, June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Ekahau Inc., a leading provider of Wi-Fi-based Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS), today announced that UK HealthCare is deploying Ekahau RTLS to track mobile medical equipment at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington, KY. Chandler Hospital is the first member of the University HealthSystems Consortium (UHC) to deploy the Ekahau RTLS solution under a preferred-provider agreement announced earlier this year.

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"Because Ekahau RTLS operates over any brand of Wi-Fi network, it was the ideal solution for leveraging our existing infrastructure," said Jean Sargeant, director of Supply Chain for UK HealthCare. "The solution enables us to track IV pumps, wheeled beds and wheelchairs quickly and cost-effectively, with the accuracy we require."

UK HealthCare selected Ekahau RTLS as its location tracking vendor because it can be quickly and easily deployed over the existing 802.11 Wi-Fi networks and delivers room-level and bed-level accuracy without requiring proprietary chokepoints or readers, which can cause interference with medical equipment. The Ekahau RTLS tags also support two-way communications, enabling location information to be sent from the tags to the system and push alerts and upgrades back to the tags. In addition, the Ekahau software enables the IT staff at Chandler Hospital to create zones in order to ensure equipment is where it needs to be, while tracking historical movement for compliance and usage optimization.

The initial deployment at Chandler Hospital will be comprised of 2,600 tags in the approximately 500-bed facility. UK HealthCare expects to expand the location tracking system to a new replacement hospital that will begin opening in phases in 2010.

"Being a software-based solution, Ekahau RTLS gives us the flexibility to easily add more tags and expand location tracking capabilities over a wider geographic area," said James Wellman, manager of the technical analysis and implementation group for UK HealthCare information technology systems. "This aspect was very important to us, knowing that, with ongoing construction, we would soon have a larger facility in which we needed to track our equipment. Ekahau RTLS also gives us the flexibility to expand the solution to other facilities should we desire, and track our mission-critical assets - no matter where they are located - from a centralized location."

UK HealthCare is a member of UHC. UHC named Ekahau a preferred provider of Wi-Fi-based RTLSs to UHC's 294 member hospitals under a three-year agreement announced in January 2009. Many of UHC's members already have Wi-Fi networks in place for voice and data communications, which makes Ekahau's Wi-Fi-based RTLS solution a logical choice for cost-effective, quick deployment. Ekahau RTLS works over any enterprise-grade Wi-Fi network infrastructure, regardless of vendor or generation.

"We are pleased to be working with UHC and UK HealthCare on the first deployment in the preferred provider relationship," said Tuomo Rutanen, vice president of business development for Ekahau. "We look forward to a successful deployment that will be a showcase for all UHC member hospitals of the benefits - such as cost, accuracy and ease of use - that can be achieved with the Ekahau RTLS solution."

About Ekahau Inc.

Ekahau Inc. is the industry leader in providing Wi-Fi-based RTLS solutions. Ekahau's RTLS technology is routinely recognized for its superior performance in customer benchmarking and competitive evaluations of Wi-Fi-based location tracking solutions. Ekahau's customers, including several Fortune 500 companies worldwide, are realizing the benefits of Wi-Fi-based location services and innovative Wi-Fi network planning and optimization tools. Ekahau's solutions are being used in more than 150 hospitals around the world, as well as by manufacturers, mining/oil/gas companies, government agencies and the military. Ekahau partners include wireless software developers, leading system integrators and international OEM partners, who develop and market wireless enterprise applications. Ekahau is a U.S.-based corporation with offices in Saratoga, CA; Reston, VA.; Helsinki, Finland; and Hong Kong, China. For more information about Ekahau, please visit http://www.ekahau.com.

    (c) Copyright 2009, Ekahau, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    U.S. Media Contact:
    Juliet Travis
    Rocket Science PR, for Ekahau
    +1-415-464-8110 x 215
    Juliet@rocketscience.com

    International Media Contact
    Annina Pierson
    Marketing Manager, Ekahau
    +358-20-743-5910
    annina.pierson@ekahau.com

SOURCE Ekahau Inc.

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