According to a report by the independent, not-for-profit standards organization GS1 UK, the top two technologies identified by nurses to help them improve efficiency and patient safety were: 1.) technologies that provide real-time views of stock levels (63 percent); and 2.) technologies for tracking the location of equipment electronically (56 percent). With its acquisition of Sentient Health, AeroScout now offers solutions and is a leader in both of these areas: AeroScout's Asset Tracking and Management solution and Sentient Health's MedTrac solution for supply chain visibility.
Hospitals use Sentient Health's MedTrac software to automate supply chain management of consumable medical supplies, such as stents, syringes and gloves. Tracking these items is a complex and time-consuming process that is typically handled manually by hospital staff. The manual approach, however, is inefficient and error-prone, which drives up costs and diverts time away from caring for patients. With MedTrac, healthcare providers are able to manage their inventories and automate procurement, increasing efficiency while reducing operating costs and saving staff time.
Many National Health Service (NHS) Trust hospitals in the U.K., including Barts and The London NHS Trust, North Bristol NHS Trust, Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, Royal Brompton & Harefield Foundation NHS Trust, as well as Omori Red Cross Hospital, Omuta City Hospital and Osaka Mishima Emergency Medical Center in Japan, are using and benefiting from MedTrac. Sentient Health customers also include top healthcare logistics companies, DHL in Europe and Toho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in Japan.
"Using MedTrac has meant that staff has more time to spend running the department and caring for patients rather than concentrating on inventory management and stock control," said Helen Sack, Clinical Coordinator at North Bristol NHS Trust.
AeroScout is the leader in Healthcare Visibility Solutions, with over 450 hospital customers worldwide. AeroScout is proud to report that in a 2010 evaluation of healthcare providers conducted by KLAS, 100 percent of AeroScout customers that responded to the survey said they would purchase AeroScout again.* Its Wi-Fi RFID solutions have also received the exclusive endorsement of the American Hospital Association.
"AeroScout continues to extend its leadership position in healthcare, with strong demand for our healthcare visibility solutions worldwide," said Yuval Bar-Gil, CEO of AeroScout. "The acquisition of Sentient Health adds supply chain visibility and optimization to our portfolio, as well as the expertise of the Sentient Health team, to support more of the needs of our healthcare customers and further extend our leadership in healthcare."
The companies have not disclosed the terms of the acquisition.
About AeroScout
AeroScout is the global market leader in Unified Asset Visibility solutions. Customers improve operational efficiency using AeroScout products that leverage standard Wi-Fi networks to track and manage the location, condition and status of mobile assets and people. AeroScout's customer base consists of leading hospital, manufacturing, mining and logistics organizations, including many of the Fortune 500. The company invented the first Wi-Fi–based Active RFID tag, and today is widely recognized as leading the market in number of deployments. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, AeroScout has offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America.
* The evaluation, 2010 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards, was published in December 2010.