SurgiCount Medical Announces Purchasing Agreement With GNYHA Services, Inc.

IRVINE, Calif., June 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SurgiCount Medical, the wholly-owned operating subsidiary of Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. (the "Company", OTCBB:PSTX, OTCQB:PSTX) today announced it has signed an agreement with GNYHA Services, Inc. (New York, NY) to provide the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge® System to its health system members.  The Safety-Sponge® System is the market leading solution to the most commonly reported surgical "Never Event", retained surgical sponges, and has been clinically proven to eliminate this frequent but preventable error.  The agreement provides terms under which GNYHA Services members have access to the Safety-Sponge® System for those who select to implement the solution for their retained sponge prevention strategy.

"We are proud to align ourselves with GNYHA Services in an effort to enable their affiliated healthcare providers to raise the quality of their patient outcomes, reduce their costs and protect their reimbursement dollars," stated Brian Stewart, President and CEO of Patient Safety Technologies, Inc.  "We look forward to working with GNYHA to raise their member awareness of the issue of retained sponges and the benefits of adopting the Safety-Sponge® System."

About GNYHA Services, Inc.
GNYHA Services is a full-service healthcare group purchasing and supply chain efficiency organization, and a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA).

Founded in 1978, GNYHA Services was created to provide supply chain solutions for hospitals in the Greater New York area. The company has since grown nationally and now serves more than 300 hospitals and health systems in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico.

Surgical Never Events and Retained Surgical Sponges
Surgical errors, sometimes referred to as "Never Events", are costly to the health care system and are associated with serious harm to patients.  Retained foreign bodies are estimated to represent up to 49.8% of all reported surgical never events¹ with surgical sponges representing the vast majority of items unintentionally retained².  Estimated to occur as often as 1 in every 1,000 to 1,500 abdominal operations to 1 in every 8,000 in patient operations², with an estimated 32 million surgical procedures annually in the U.S. this implies approximately 4,000 retained sponge incidents each year, 11 every day.  The negative impact to patient outcomes from retained foreign objects varies and can be significant, with permanent injuries in an estimated 16% of incidents and patient mortality in 5%¹.  Cost ramifications can be considerable and include legal expenses and awards, non-reimbursable healthcare services, loss of time, loss of reputation for involved individuals and facilities and the negative impact on pay for performance metrics. 

About Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. and SurgiCount Medical
Patient Safety Technologies, Inc., through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary SurgiCount Medical, Inc., provides the Safety-Sponge® System, a solution clinically proven to improve patient safety and reduce healthcare costs by helping prevent one of the most common errors in surgery, retained surgical sponges. The solution is currently used in over 300 government, teaching and community hospitals across the U.S., including 7 of the 2012-2013 US News and World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll recipients.

Contact
For sales related information contact Scott M. Pecore, VP National Accounts, SurgiCount Medical, Inc. at (949) 236-1497 or via email at [email protected].

For Company related inquiries contact Brian Stewart, President and CEO of SurgiCount Medical, Inc. at (949) 289-9550

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release regarding our business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" (within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements reflect our management's current views with respect to future events and financial performance; however, you should not put undue reliance on these statements.  When used, the words "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "intends," "future," and other similar expressions, without limitation, identify forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These factors and uncertainties include but are not limited to: our ability to implement in all hospitals within the larger hospitals organizations with which we have agreements, our ability to implement in those hospitals with which we have scheduled implementations, the early stage of adoption of our Safety-Sponge® System and the need to expand adoption of our Safety-Sponge® System; the impact on our future revenue and cash flows from the ordering patterns of our exclusive distributor Cardinal Health; our need for additional financing to support our business; our reliance on third-party manufacturers, some of whom are sole-source suppliers, and on our exclusive distributor; and any inability to successfully protect our intellectual property portfolio.  In light of the risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement will in fact prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements can be affected by many other factors, including, those described in the "Business", "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Factors Affecting Future Results" sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2011, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in our other public filings. These documents are available online through the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements are based on information presently available to senior management, and we have not assumed any duty to update any forward-looking statements.

¹ Mehtsun, et al. Surgical never events in the United States, J Surg 2012;10.005

² Cima RR, Kollengode A, Garnatz J, et al. Incidence and characteristics of potential and actual retained foreign object events in surgical patients. J Am Coll Surg 2008;207:80-87

SOURCE SurgiCount Medical, Inc.