Awarepoint Announces First Annual RTLS Customer Conference and User Group Results and Highlights

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Awarepoint Corporation today announced it conducted its first annual Real-time Location System (RTLS) Client Conference and User Group, Viewpoint | 2011, January 23-25, 2011 in San Diego, CA.

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At this exclusive Awarepoint event, RTLS hospital clients were provided the opportunity to connect with other hospitals to share information and use cases on how RTLS solutions are positively impacting their healthcare organization; preview new product innovations from Awarepoint, and participate in client user group feedback sessions to help assure Awarepoint's next generation hardware and software road map remain in line with RTLS in healthcare market maturity.

The Viewpoint 2011 conference featured a comprehensive agenda commencing with a full day of RTLS hospital client presentations.  Key department heads from each hospital outlined how real-time awareness applications impact their specific hospital operational areas, and shared real-world learnings on how to maximize RTLS benefits.  The hospital presentations were focused on several key areas of RTLS impact in healthcare:

• Patient Safety and Quality Initiatives - Wasted Time Looking for Equipment; Long Order-to-Care Delivery Times; Patient and Staff Satisfaction Issues
• Hospital Cost Management - Capital Budget Redundancies; Excessive Rentals; Suboptimal Asset Utilization; Lost, Stolen, Misplaced Equipment
• Hospital Risk Exposure and Compliance Initiatives - Ineffective Equipment Recall and Maintenance Processes, Reduced Temperature Monitoring Compliance
• Hospital Missed Revenue Opportunities - Ambulance Diversions, OR Case Delays, Slow Bed Turnover, Procedure Revenue Capture

As Awarepoint's growing hospital client base experiences the benefits of RTLS, they have validated that while RTLS offers a financial return on investment, the real success stories surround supporting nurses and other caregivers and the impact RTLS has to delivering safe, efficient patient care in their hospitals:

• History and Growth of RTLS Use Cases and Effective Use of an RTLS Steering Committee – University of San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, CA
• RTLS Impact on Reducing Procurement and Improving Alignment of Materials Management and Nursing – Texoma Medical Center, Denison, TX
• Business Process Improvement in the Surgical Suite and Specialty Surface Workflow Management with RTLS – University of San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
• Cross Departmental Benefits of RTLS, including Clinical Staff, Biomedical Engineering and Materials Management – Metro Health Hospital, Wyoming, MI
• Temperature Monitoring in Food and Nutrition – UCSD Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
• RTLS Impact on Patient Safety Initiatives - Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Baton Rouge, LA
• Managing a Decentralized Pump Process with RTLS – St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital, Jackson, MS
• RTLS Impact on Equipment Rentals – Non-Profit HMO, Northern California
• RTLS and Patient Tracking Initiatives - UCSD Infusion Center, San Diego, CA

On the second day of the conference, participants were involved in interactive user group sessions to share their feedback in identifying, evaluating and prioritizing next generation technology, software applications and business process improvement consulting strategies.  The group discussed RTLS data and analytics required to improve workflows and processes associated with all resources in the hospital environment – equipment, patients and personnel.

"The Awarepoint team is passionate about understanding client needs and RTLS solutions requirements.  This conference was an opportunity to validate how our products and services can help meet those needs," said Jay Deady, Awarepoint President and CEO.  "Our client base has fully undertaken asset tracking and is now engaged in exploring patient and care workflows and clinical intervention opportunities enabled with RTLS.  You'll see significant investment in Awarepoint's software, consulting and services teams to continue to help clients tackle these advanced use cases in 2011 and beyond."

Awarepoint is committed to holding its Viewpoint Client Conference and User Group annually.  The 2012 date is pending, but tentatively planned for April 2012.

About Awarepoint

Awarepoint's industry leading Real-time Awareness Solutions are used to track and monitor assets, patients and personnel in hospitals. These solutions provide enterprise awareness to improve efficiency, quality of care and workflows, and supply valuable location, status, and movement data to clinicians and healthcare administrators to enable process improvement. Awarepoint's real-time location systems (RTLS) include its networked awareness platform, firmware, active RFID tags, sensors, bridges, software, and best practice consulting services. Requiring no hard wiring, Awarepoint's "plug and track" ZigBee®-based wireless sensor network is a fully managed service, including hardware, software, remote monitoring, and maintenance. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California and currently serves hospital clients both across North America and internationally. For more information about us, please go to http://www.awarepoint.com.

SOURCE Awarepoint