Versus Announces Patient Flow Automation with RTLS for St. Louis VAMC

Traverse City, MI, January 28, 2010 — Versus Technology, Inc. (Versus) has effectively deployed Enterprise VISion for the St. Louis VAMC, John Cochran Division to help manage patient flow, room status, and interaction with patients in real-time. St. Louis VAMC, a two-division, tertiary care facility with over 200 hospital beds, chose the Versus Real-time Location System (RTLS) to improve safety, efficiency, and volume management for their growing patient population.
 
Specifically, the St. Louis VAMC is using VISion: Clinic™ in their outpatient eye clinic and VISion: OR™ in their operating room. These areas, as well as a number of dedicated caregivers, support approximately 100 patients per day.
 
Like every other healthcare organization, the St. Louis VA needed a way to address patient flow, prevent roadblocks, and collect data — efficiently, consistently, and on a budget. Already one of the busiest VAs in the country, St. Louis VA is also preparing for an increased patient volume as a result of troop surges in Afghanistan, veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as an aging veteran population.
 
Within the Eye Clinic and the Eye Surgery OR, patients will be assigned a Versus locating badge, which will help staff to not only quickly and easily locate the patient, but also monitor the patient’s wait time and the length of specific procedures. Because staff also wear the Versus badge, the clinic also captures patient alone time and time spent with the caregiver.
 
Because Versus accurately determines patient location and interactions with caregivers, the St. Louis VA is able to “Begin” and “End” specific intervals of care such as the Evaluation, Eye Screening, Visual Field Tests, Dilation, Exam and CVSM (consent, verification and site mark) stages without having to “tell” someone or manually “log” it into a system. They then have Versus reports available for each of these individual stages and the overall patient visit — for every visit — that can be analyzed for process improvement.
 
Versus ensures situational awareness and improved efficiency. The Eye Clinic and the OR use VISion to automatically:

• Communicate which caregivers have attended to the patient,
• Monitor wait time, including alerts to staff if wait time exceeds goal,
• Alert caregivers when the patient is ready to be seen,
• Indicate “next patient” for surgery, and
• Determine room status and availability.

 
The Versus solution is also versatile, allowing St. Louis VA staff to enter notes and identify any roadblocks to surgery or patient visit progression.
 
The Versus RTLS is used in hundreds of healthcare facilities for patient flow automation and process improvement. Exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the Versus IR and Active RFID patient and asset tracking system is a key component of the AHA Solution’s Patient Flow Platform, which includes a select group of vendors that provide proven solutions to enhance patient flow and improve patient safety. Versus’ asset tracking, bed management and clinical flow solutions are positively transforming healthcare by making patients safer, staff more efficient, and communication more dynamic — all in a cost-effective manner.
 
About The St. Louis VA Medical Center
The St. Louis VAMC is a two-division, tertiary care facility with 218 approved hospital operating beds, a 71-bed Community Living Center (CLC), a 50-bed Rehabilitation Domiciliary for Homeless Veterans, and a 25-bed Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (SARRTP) that provides a comprehensive range of services to veterans who reside in 7 counties in eastern Missouri and 14 counties in western Illinois. The medical center provides outpatient primary care and specialty care services in addition to specialized inpatient care. The facility also maintains Community Based Outpatient Clinics in St. Charles, Missouri; Belleville, Illinois; and North St. Louis City. St. Louis VAMC is the tertiary referral center for the VA Medical Centers in Marion, Illinois; and Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
 
About Versus Technology, Inc.
For nearly 20 years, Versus Technology, Inc. has maintained the leadership position in the development and sale of context-aware real-time location systems (RTLS) used for enterprise patient tracking, bed management, and asset tracking to improve patient flow and caregiver/patient communications in hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities. Versus also develops dual infrared and Active RFID tags and other location tracking hardware to make locating systems more precise, security systems more intelligent, nurse call systems automatic, and hospital asset tracking systems more efficient. Indoor positioning through Versus’ RTLS enhances existing hospital software and patient care systems with real-time, reliable bed-level location information. The patented Versus IR and Active RFID patient and asset tracking system is exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association and is a key component of their Patient Flow Platform — which includes a select group of vendors that provide proven solutions to enhance patient flow and improve patient safety. (www.versustech.com; Pink Sheets: VSTI.PK)
 
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