Salamander, Versus Team Up to Provide Complete Patient-tracking Solution

Unique ID tag provides incident-to-hospital patient visibility; crucial for mass-casualty incident management.

Traverse City, Michigan, August 3, 2011 — A unique joint tracking solution that gives hospitals complete situational awareness from the scene of a mass casualty incident through patient admittance and discharge could play a critical role in victim treatment and survivability in the event of a mass casualty event.

Salamander Technologies and Versus Technology, Inc., two of the nation’s leading tracking and locating companies, have integrated their technologies to create a seamless data collection-and-transfer process that can gather patient information at the site of an incident and push it to clinicians prior to hospital arrival. This integration takes advantage of Salamander’s electronic tagging and tracking capabilities that occur in a dynamic field environment, and Versus’ real-time locating system (RTLS) expertise within the confines of a medical complex:

• The Salamander solution allows emergency responders to quickly and accurately register and tag patients on scene.
• Triage, treatment and transport data is captured and managed in the disaster zone and then sent electronically to the Versus system.  
• Versus receives the data – including patient name, triage priority, chief complaint, transport agency, ETA, status, and incident name – and makes it visible on an electronic patient console within the hospital.  
• The Versus RTLS provides precise patient location information down to an individual chair-level, as well as identify any clinician or equipment that comes into contact with that patient.

“The idea that we can seamlessly track a patient from the wide-open site of a natural or man-made disaster down to a specific hospital bed has huge implications for emergency responders and health care professionals responding to a possible pandemic or bioterrorism incident,” said Russ Miller, Salamander Technologies president and CEO. “But the benefits of this partnership go beyond patient treatment and outcomes. It can help family and friends search for loved ones and can assist with resource management when dealing with overlapping jurisdictions.”

Salamander Technologies’ interTRAX® Suite of Solutions allows first responders to track all people at the scene of an emergency or event.  Each tracking activity results in the creation of a detailed date/time stamp history, capturing when each incident activity occurred.  This information can be used for on-scene command and control, or for post-incident reporting and reimbursement – significantly impacting ROI.

Endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the Versus Advantages™ RTLS is designed to produce clinical-quality location information that can be used not only as an indication of real-time location of patients, staff and assets, but also to automate clinical workflows and provide Lean/Six Sigma Process Improvement and quality reporting data. It is trusted location data that can be relied upon to communicate location information and to automate clinical processes for physicians, nurses, clinicians and first responders.

Versus has participated in several mass casualty practice drills to automate the patient data capture and provide accurate and timely patient tracking. The most recent was with the Bethesda Hospitals’ Emergency Preparedness Partnership (BHEPP), comprised of Suburban Hospital (a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine), the National Naval Medical Center, and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and National Library of Medicine.

“Versus has proven that accurate information is key to decision support in highly critical and often chaotic environments like the emergency department,” stated Kevin Jackson, CTO, Versus. “We believe it is just as critical to mass emergencies. By partnering with emergency response solutions, such as Salamander, we bring an extra layer of awareness and information continuity to first responders, caregivers, and families.”

About Salamander Technologies, Inc.  
Salamander Technologies is the nation’s leading provider of tracking solutions and field-based incident management tools.  Salamander’s pedigree lies in its ability to create high-capacity ID cards and site passes and then use those cards to track anyone at the site of an incident, including first responders, mutual aid, victims, evacuees, visitors, and others.  The company’s “Data-in-the-Tag™” advantage uses PDF 417 barcodes, RFID, and smart card technologies to increase site security, health and safety, time savings, and federal reimbursements. Based in Traverse City, Mich., the company provides simple, scalable, and interoperable accountability solutions to the public safety, government and private sector markets that comply with National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) mandates. The Salamander Technologies interTRAX® Suite is protected by U.S. Patent No. 5,596,652; 5,793,882; 5,573,278; 6,761,312; 7,191,934. www.salamandertechnologies.com

About Versus Technology, Inc.  
Established in 1988, Versus Technology, Inc. specializes in real-time location systems (RTLS) for healthcare.

Used for enterprise patient tracking, bed management, asset tracking, and nurse call automation, Versus Advantages™ improves patient flow and documentation of caregiver and patient interactions, while enhancing communication and efficiency. Exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the Versus Advantages infrared (IR) and Active RFID solution is responsible for clinical-grade location and automation at a number of hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities worldwide. To learn more about Versus Technology, Inc., visit www.versustech.com and take the Advantages Tour.