Cardinal Health, RF Surgical sign distribution agreement for radio frequency-enabled sponge detection system

Cardinal Health now offers hospitals, surgery centers the industry’s most comprehensive suite of technology solutions to prevent retained objects in patients
DUBLIN, Ohio and BELLEVUE, Wash., March 11, 2009 — Cardinal Health, a global provider of products and services that improve the safety and productivity of health care, today announced an agreement to distribute the RF Surgical Detection System.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cardinal Health will distribute the RF Surgical Detection System to hospitals, surgery centers and other health care distributors in the United States as part of its Presource® surgical kits and as a stand alone offering.

The patented and FDA-approved RF Surgical Detection System scans for and signals an alert if any radio frequency-tagged sponges, gauze or towels remain in a patient prior to surgical closing procedures.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and an increasing number of private insurers have indicated that they will no longer reimburse for procedures associated with “never” events such as left-behind surgical sponges. Published studies today indicate that one in every 1,000 to 1,500 intra-abdominal surgeries results in a sponge left behind in a patient. A retained sponge incident can lead to serious complications, including sepsis, unnecessary X-rays, need for repeat surgeries and even death.

’We are pleased to be working with Cardinal Health to offer hospitals and surgery centers across the country enhanced patient safety through the advanced technology of our sponge detection system,’ said Gary Blackbourn, vice president sales and marketing for RF Surgical.

’Cardinal Health’s focus on retained foreign object solutions and significant market reach will provide RF Surgical the opportunity to expand its implementation base of over 100 hospitals nationwide.”

Cardinal Health, which also offers computer-assisted, bar code-enabled sponge counting and documentation systems and RFID-enabled sponge counting and detection systems, is now the only company to offer hospital and surgery center customers access to a comprehensive suite of retained foreign object technologies.

’This agreement with RF Surgical now provides Cardinal Health the opportunity to support our customers’ diverse patient safety needs, regardless of the retained foreign object technology they may decide to utilize,’ commented Steve Inacker, president of Cardinal Health’s Medical segment.