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Mediware Helps Reduce Risk of Disease Transfer in NICU All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. licensessoftwareto ensure mother’s milk is safely stored, prepared and administered to infants. LENEXA, KS Feb. 16, 2009 - Mediware Information Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDW) announced today that the company has expanded its product portfolio through an agreement to market LacTrack® SafeLx, a new software system designed specifically to manage the storage, preparation and administration of mother’s milk used in hospitals. The company also announced that All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. has adopted this new technology to reduce the risk of mis-administration and lower the threat of disease transfer during feedings. All Children’s, which is one of two freestanding children’s hospitals in Florida, has one of the largest neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in the Southeastern United States.
“The availability of LacTrack expands upon our strategy to extend technology solutions from the clinical departments to the patient’s bedside to improve safety and efficiency,” said Kelly Mann, Mediware’s president and chief executive officer. “The sale to All Children’s helps validate our strategy and shows that high value solutions such as ours are still in demand despite increasing economic concerns.”
In operation for more than 80 years, All Children’s Hospital is currently building a new facility that will increase capacity to 259 beds, including 97 in NICU. As a part of this expansion the hospital is implementing new technologies intended to improve overall efficiencies as well as address patient safety concerns. Improving their ability to safely and effectively manage NICU feedings and mother’s milk is one of many planned improvements.
“Most people do not understand the needs and risks associated with managing mother’s milk in an NICU environment,” said Jean Francis, All Children’s senior vice president of clinical services. “It has been viewed as a relatively simple, low tech process in our high tech industry. But we are learning to treat breast milk processing and feeding with the same safeguards as blood or medication administration.”
The milk administration process requires the hospital to receive and inventory mother’s milk, add supplemental nutrients as prescribed, and validate patient and donor identity prior to each feeding to ensure each infant is getting the right milk. A facility the size of All Children’s will perform approximately 8,000 feedings per month. With handling and preparations, this translates into an estimated 24,000 opportunities for error in the feeding process alone. While the risk of disease transmission is minimal, a mis-administration frequently requires additional care that can cause tremendous stress for both families and staff and adds to the cost of care.
Ms Francis continues: “What sold us is the fact that this is a technology that works for us versus us having to adapt. LacTrack is really unique in that it is designed specifically to meet the requirement of managing breast milk. From receipt of the milk, through storage, supplements and administration, it provides us a closed-loop environment to ensure safety at every point in the process. It is a quantum leap in efficiency and is our final defense to ensure our babies are safe and secure.”
Using LacTrack, mother’s milk is bar coded for identification and inventoried at the hospital. The system records where the milk is stored, how it is to be prepared and tracks each unit throughout the hospital until it is ultimately used or discarded. LacTrack also includes the ability to use handheld technologies to enable NICU nurses to manage and monitor the feeding requirements from the bedside. This includes placing new nutritional orders and validating patient identification prior to feeding to ensure that the right milk is being administered.
About LacTrack® SafeLx
About All Children’s
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