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Nortel Mobility Solutions Help Memorial Hospital At Gulfport Improve Patient Care


WEBWIRE

Location-Based Technology, Network Services Enhance Efficiency, Responsiveness
GULFPORT, Miss. – Memorial Hospital at Gulfport** is providing a safer environment and better patient care with wireless tracking and management of patients and equipment using healthcare mobility solutions from Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT].


These solutions, delivered in cooperation with Nortel channel partner CDW* Healthcare, include Nortel’s Asset Tracking and Management Solution and Collaborative Clinical Solution. They combine advanced wireless technology and clinical software with network consulting, application, implementation, support and management from Nortel’s Global Services portfolio.

Healthcare providers like Memorial Hospital at Gulfport are saving critical time and enhancing productivity to better serve their patients in an increasingly demanding environment with innovative healthcare solutions built on unified communications technology and network managed services from Nortel.

These Healthcare Solutions are on display in Orlando, Fla. this week at HIMSS08, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (Nortel booth #6281).

“Precise coordination of staff, patients and equipment is critical to providing the best possible care,” said Richard Ferrans, MD, vice president and medical information officer, Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. “Now with Nortel’s healthcare mobility solutions, we can automatically provide clinicians with lab results, patient status and other information. This promotes faster diagnosis and treatment and improved patient safety.”

Nortel’s Asset Tracking and Management Solution improves efficiency by providing real-time location and status information on equipment and patients. This can reduce loss by as much as 40 percent while streamlining patient workflow up to 20 percent.

This solution uses Wi-Fi tags, wireless access points and asset tracking software to locate thousands of monitors and other medical devices. It makes dispatching diagnostic and life-saving equipment to the point of need faster and easier, while maintaining inventory and lowering rental costs by as much as 25 percent. The same Wi-Fi tags are also used for real-time location of patients with accuracy to within three meters. This can be particularly useful in keeping track of infants and other at-risk patients.

Nortel’s Collaborative Clinical Solution combines unified communications with this same real-time location to direct alerts and information from clinical systems to clinicians’ mobile devices or nearby phones without human intervention. This means doctors and nurses get the information they need more quickly. In urgent cases, this can shave precious seconds off the time required to administer treatment. Even in routine cases, less time to respond means more time for clinicians to deal with other patients.

Memorial determined that a digital transformation was necessary to provide the highest possible quality of care. In late 2006, this modern, 440-bed hospital on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast retired its paper medical records system** in favor of more efficient electronic alternatives. The next step was to find a better way to track patients and equipment, and a timelier, more efficient means of getting information and instructions to clinicians. Nortel filled the bill.

“In healthcare as in other industries, effective communication is no longer just person-to-person,” said Charles Salameh, vice president, Network Business Solutions, Nortel. “It’s also software-to-person and software-to-device. What Memorial is doing shows how hospitals can capitalize on Hyperconnectivity to make healthcare better. It’s about empowering clinical transformations that create collaborative, connected healthcare communities for efficiency and better patient outcomes.”
Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as “could”, “expects”, “may”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “targets”, “envisions”, “seeks” and other similar language and are considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may be materially different from those contemplated in forward-looking statements. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel’s Annual Report on Form10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

*Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks. CDW is a trademark of CDW Corporation.
**This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking practices.



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