Awarepoint’s RFID Asset Management System Selected at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

SAN DIEGO (November 7, 2007) – Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) today announced it has selected Awarepoint’s Real-time Awareness Solution® to provide a hospital-wide RFID asset management system. With Awarepoint, hospital staff will now have the hi-tech tools needed to efficiently track the location, status and movement of the hospital’s mobile medical equipment. As one of the largest medical treatment facilities within the Department of Defense, this short term acute care facility is embracing asset tracking technology to further improve business processes and positively impact patient care.

With the hospital’s expansive layout of 1.1 million square feet and unique building topography (including thick, cement fortification), finding a workable RFID asset management solution involved a vast effort. The competitive government procurement included detailed review of six other companies, all employing various WiFi and RFID technologies. Awarepoint’s Zigbee wireless sensor network was selected.

Unlike other RFID asset management technologies, Awarepoint provides a fully managed service requiring no hospital IT resources for maintenance of hardware or software. Awarepoint’s solution needs no hardwiring or fixed infrastructure - wireless sensors simply plug into electrical outlets to form the self-healing Awarenet™ mesh network. Small, battery-powered tags are securely attached to equipment and users track equipment using the web-based Searchpoint™ search engine.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center also considered total installation time and patient care disruption in their selection. Awarepoint’s wireless sensor network can be configured in days, not weeks or months and offered WRAMC a non-disruptive, dust-free installation. When asked why the Awarepoint solution was selected, one WRAMC spokesperson replied: “When you offer the highest quality product for the best possible price, you will win every time.”

WRAMC is in the process of tagging 4,000 assets. Once deployed, the Awarepoint solution will:

• Help staff more quickly and easily locate equipment and identify opportunities to streamline clinical processes,
• Allow nursing staff more time for direct patient care and reduce wait times for patients needing transport throughout the facility,
• Enable WRAMC biomedical staff to manage preventative maintenance schedules and respond to product recall notices more efficiently,
• Provide Central Services real-time actionable information about the hospital’s equipment inventory to better plan for capital equipment purchases and optimize equipment rental programs.

“Awarepoint utilizes a ZigBee wireless mesh network along with sophisticated, patented algorithms, making it the fastest, least disruptive installation in the industry while delivering the precision and accuracy required for asset tracking applications,” said Jason Howe, CEO of Awarepoint. “Also, ZigBee co-exists with other hospital infrastructure technologies, such as WiFi, making the solution a great fit for technology-forward medical centers like Walter Reed, whom we are honored to have been selected by for this project.”

About Awarepoint Corporation:
The Awarepoint Real-time Awareness Solution delivers healthcare providers reliable location, status and movement information to remotely monitor equipment and people. Using minimal hardware and no hard wiring, Awarepoint offers a completely non-disruptive, rapid impact implementation - even in occupied patient rooms. This award-winning solution enables hospitals to map resources, monitor activity and measure performance to more effectively improve business processes that impact patient care and operational efficiencies. Awarepoint is provided as a fully managed service, including 24/7/365 remote system monitoring and full maintenance of hardware and software, requiring no hospital IT resources. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California and serves hospitals across the United States through a national sales and operations workforce. See what’s new at www.awarepoint.com

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