Skagit Valley Hospital Standardizes on Masimo SET® Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion Pulse Oximetry

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. and IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Skagit Valley Hospital, among the Top 100 in 2012 for joint replacement, orthopedics and prostatectomy, according to health care ratings firm HealthGrades, and Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) today announced the hospital's system-wide standardization to Masimo SET^® Pulse Oximetry.

Skagit Valley Hospital will standardize on SET^® pulse oximetry technology at every patient bed and in every care area(monitors and sensors), creating an environment that provides Skagit Valley Hospital clinicians with accurate patient monitoring capabilities during challenging conditions, including patient movement and low perfusion.

"Skagit Valley Hospital is dedicated to providing safe, quality care to our patients. We are pleased to continue to bring in the latest in technology to benefit the patients we serve," said Getty Phippen, Skagit Valley Hospital Director of Pulmonary and Sleep Services. "Masimo's technology is excellent and the monitors are precise, picking up signals even when patients' hands are cold."

Skagit Valley Hospital will also deploy rainbow^® Acoustic Monitoring for acoustic respiration rate (RRa™), which noninvasively and continuously measures respiration rate using an innovative adhesive sensor with an integrated acoustic transducer that is easily and comfortably applied to the patient's neck. RRa is a breakthrough measurement that facilitates earlier detection of respiratory compromise and patient distress – especially important for post-surgical patients receiving patient-controlled analgesia for pain management, as the sedation can induce respiratory depression and place patients at considerable risk of serious injury or death.^1-3

"We compared Masimo to others and found Masimo's technology works better, especially when patients moved around a lot," said Bill Thomas, Materials Management Director at Skagit Valley Hospital. "We're happy with the product and it cost less. So, we're saving money and getting a better outcome for our patients. It was a win-win."

"This partnership with Skagit Valley Hospital is another example of a leading healthcare organization improving patient outcomes with Masimo SET^® technology," said Joe Kiani, chairman and CEO of Masimo. "Patient care and safety remain our top priority, and we're happy that our technology will help Skagit Valley Hospital keep continuous and noninvasive watch over their patients, whether in the OR or on the general floor."

Masimo SET^® virtually eliminates false alarms⁴ and helps clinicians detect life-threatening events.⁵ More than 100 independent clinical studies have confirmed that Masimo SET^® technology allows clinicians to accurately monitor blood oxygen saturation in the most challenging conditions – helping to substantially contribute to improved patient outcomes. The option to upgrade to Masimo rainbow^® SET^® Pulse CO-Oximetry allows clinicians to noninvasively monitor multiple blood constituents that previously required invasive or complicated procedures, including total hemoglobin (SpHb^®), oxygen content (SpOC™), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO^®), methemoglobin (SpMet^®), Pleth Variability Index (PVI^®), and acoustic respiration rate (RRa).

1 The Joint Commission. Sentinel event alert: Safe use of opioids in hospitals; 2012.
2 Institute for Safe Medication Practices. Safety issues with patient-controlled analgesia: Part I – How errors occur; ISMP. 2003.
3 Bird M. Acute pain management: a new area of liability for anesthesiologists; ASA Newsletter. 2007; 71:8.
4 Shah N, Ragaswamy H, Govindugari K, Estanol L. "Performance of three new-generation pulse oximeters during motion and low perfusion in volunteers." Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. 2012 (10.1016/j.jclinane.2011.10.012) Available online here
5 Taenzer, Andreas H.; Pyke, Joshua B.; McGrath, Susan P.; Blike, George T. "Impact of Pulse Oximetry Surveillance on Rescue Events and Intensive Care Unit Transfers: A Before-and-After Concurrence Study." Anesthesiology, February 2010, Vol. 112, Issue 2. Available online here 

About Skagit Valley Hospital
Licensed for 137 beds, Skagit Valley Hospital is a regional, public facility serving residents of Skagit, Island, San Juan and north Snohomish counties since 1958. The Mount Vernon hospital and Skagit Regional Clinics, with eight locations, are part of the integrated system known as Skagit Regional Health. The hospital's comprehensive services include the Skagit Regional Heart & Vascular Institute, a Level III Trauma Center, a comprehensive Regional Cancer Care Center, the well-appointed Family Birth Center and surgical services with a focus on orthopedics and minimally invasive procedures. For more information, visit http://www.skagitvalleyhospital.org/.  

About Masimo
Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) is the global leader in innovative noninvasive monitoring technologies that significantly improve patient care—helping solve "unsolvable" problems. In 1995, the company debuted Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry, known as Masimo SET^®, which virtually eliminated false alarms and increased pulse oximetry's ability to detect life-threatening events. More than 100 independent and objective studies have shown that Masimo SET^® outperforms other pulse oximetry technologies, even under challenging clinical conditions, including patient motion and low peripheral perfusion. In 2005, Masimo introduced rainbow SET^® Pulse CO-Oximetry technology, allowing noninvasive and continuous monitoring of blood constituents that previously required invasive procedures, including total hemoglobin (SpHb^®), oxygen content (SpOC^TM), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO^®), methemoglobin (SpMet^®), and Pleth Variability Index (PVI^®), in addition to SpO₂, pulse rate, and perfusion index (PI). Additional information about Masimo and its products may be found at www.masimo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, in connection with the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations about future events affecting us and are subject to risks and uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control and could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in our forward-looking statements as a result of various risk factors, including, but not limited to: risks related to our assumptions regarding the repeatability of clinical results; risks related to our belief that Masimo's unique noninvasive measurement technologies, including: total hemoglobin (SpHb), SpOC, SpCO, SpMet, PVI, and RRa, contribute to positive clinical outcomes and patient safety; risks related to our belief that Masimo noninvasive medical breakthroughs provide cost-effective solutions with comparable accuracy and unique advantages, including: immediate and continuous results that enable earlier treatment without causing invasive trauma in all patients and in every clinical situation; as well as other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which may be obtained for free at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we do not know whether our expectations will prove correct. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today's date. We do not undertake any obligation to update, amend or clarify these statements or the "Risk Factors" contained in our most recent reports filed with the SEC, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under the applicable securities laws.

Masimo, SET, Signal Extraction Technology, Improving Patient Outcome and Reducing Cost of Care... by Taking Noninvasive Monitoring to New Sites and Applications, rainbow, SpHb, SpOC, SpCO, SpMet, PVI, rainbow Acoustic Monitoring, RRa, Radical-7, Rad-87, Rad-57,Rad-8, Rad-5,Pulse CO-Oximetry, Pulse CO-Oximeter, Adaptive Threshold Alarm, and SEDLine are trademarks or registered trademarks of Masimo Corporation. The use of the trademarks Patient SafetyNet and PSN is under license from University HealthSystem Consortium.

SOURCE Masimo