GRAND RAPIDS, MI and SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/09/09 -- Skytron and Awarepoint today announced deployment of their Real-time Location System (RTLS) (http://www.awarepoint.com/solutions.html) at Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital (Howard Hospital), in Willits, California. Howard Hospital is part of Adventist Health, a not-for-profit, faith-based health system operating in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.

Howard Hospital is using Skytron Asset Manager (http://www.skytron.us/s-asst-mgr.htm), powered by Awarepoint, to track mobile patient care assets including beds, infusion pumps, suction and aspiration devices, electronic thermometers, telemetry and vital signs monitors. Assets are located campus-wide across multiple hospital buildings, including the main hospital, CAT scan building, outpatient imaging center and storage facility.

Skytron Asset Manager is powered by Awarepoint's ZigBee (http://www.zigbee.org/)-based wireless sensor network and is a fully managed service including hardware, software, remote monitoring and maintenance. Using underlying ZigBee technology and patented computational algorithms, the system provides true enterprise-wide awareness -- not only room-level, but persistent accuracy across the entire hospital footprint.

"The ability to tightly manage the location, status and utilization of our inventory will have a profound effect on reducing unneeded equipment purchases and eliminating lost or misplaced items," said Carlton Jacobson, Howard Memorial's Vice President of Finance. "At the same time, reducing staff time and frustration in finding what they need not only improves their job satisfaction, but increases the amount of time spent on direct patient care."

Howard Memorial staff search equipment via Skytron Asset Manager an average of 750 times per month. "If we use a conservative estimate that each search saves 20 minutes in wasted staff time, then on the low end, the system has added the equivalent of one full-time employee. This efficiency is in addition to the anticipated capital budget savings we expect," continued Jacobson.

About Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital

Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital is part of Adventist Health, a not-for-profit, faith-based health system operating in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Founded on the Seventh-day Adventist heritage of Christian health care, Adventist Health is comprised of 19 hospitals with more than 2,800 beds, 18,000 employees, numerous clinics and outpatient facilities, 16 home care agencies and three joint-venture retirement centers. For more information, visit www.adventisthealth.org

About Skytron

Skytron provides innovative and efficient medical equipment solutions for a variety of healthcare settings and hospital departments, and is recognized across North America for the highest quality products, extensive product menu and exceptional customer service. Skytron products include surgical lighting, tables, booms, integration, stainless steel, RTLS-RFID technology, and more. Since 1972, Skytron has remained true to their commitment of "customer service first, everything else will follow." Skytron has partnered with Awarepoint as the exclusive sales, distribution and support partner for RFID RTLS in the U.S. Hospital market. For more information on Skytron's quality products, visit www.skytron.us

About Awarepoint

Awarepoint's real-time location systems (RTLSs) include its real-time awareness (http://www.awarepoint.com/NetworkInfrastructure.html) platform, firmware, active RFID tags (http://www.awarepoint.com/Tags.html), sensors, and bridges. Awarepoint's technologies collect raw sensor data and transform that data into high-value positioning information that can be used to add location awareness to a variety of healthcare, manufacturing, security and other applications. Requiring no hard wiring, Awarepoint's "plug and track" ZigBee-based wireless sensor network is a fully managed service, including hardware, software, remote monitoring and maintenance. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California and serves its hospital customers across the United States through an exclusive distribution partnership with Skytron. Track us down at www.awarepoint.com.

About ZigBee: Control your world

ZigBee is the global wireless language connecting dramatically different devices to work together and enhance everyday life. The ZigBee Alliance is a non-profit association of more than 300 member companies driving development of ZigBee wireless technology. The Alliance promotes world-wide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer electronics, energy, health care, home, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: www.zigbee.org.

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