Deal brings Fortune 1000 Hospira to Southpointe and makes St. Clair Hospital a national alpha test site for leading-edge healthcare technology.
Pittsburgh, PA (Vocus/PRWeb) April 30, 2008 -— Hospira, Inc. (NYSE: HSP), a global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company, and Pittsburgh, PA-based St. Clair Health Corporation, today announced that Hospira has acquired Sculptor Developmental Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of St. Clair Health Corporation. Sculptor is a software engineering company formed by St. Clair Hospital in 1993 to advance the use of information technology to improve patient care. Sculptor developed the VeriScan Rx Medication Administration System, the hospital industry’s only software that supports both barcode scanning and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) on a single handheld device, to prevent errors when administering patient medication. More than 125 hospitals in the United States, Canada and Europe use Sculptor’s applications.
As a result of the deal, St. Clair Hospital will become a Hospira development and test site for leading-edge medication management products, which will eventually be available to the global healthcare marketplace.
Sculptor will continue to be headquartered at Southpointe, and Hospira plans to expand the company, including the addition of new jobs.
“Sculptor's approach to developing products designed by clinicians, for clinicians, results in high adoption rates and an immediate impact to patient safety and clinician efficiency,” said Chris Kolber, president, Global Devices, Hospira. “We look forward to working with Sculptor and St. Clair, two organizations with a wealth of healthcare information technology (IT) knowledge and skill."
“We are delighted that the technologies developed and pioneered at St. Clair Hospital to improve medication safety will soon be readily available to healthcare providers around the world, in conjunction with the industry-leading Hospira MedNet® software and infusion devices,” said James M. Collins, president and chief executive officer of St. Clair Hospital. “The resulting collaboration among Hospira, Sculptor and St. Clair will make the Pittsburgh region a leading center for the development of advanced medication management systems.”
Addressing Patient Safety through Medication Administration Verification
According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), medication errors impact 1.5 million people and add $3.5 billion to the cost of healthcare in the United States each year. Bar code point-of-care and RFID solutions are becoming a necessity in eliminating errors by verifying the "five rights" of medication administration: right medication, right dose, right patient, right time and right route of administration.
Sculptor’s VeriScan technology will be integrated with Hospira’s MedNet® software, enabling clinicians to program a Hospira infusion device by scanning their own identification badge (ID), the patient wristband, the medication and the infusion pump. Because VeriScan also supports RFID technology, the scanning process for the clinician and patient ID is simplified. When a handheld computer is placed within three inches of the patient or clinician ID, the personalized data is automatically uploaded into the hospital information system, further decreasing the number of steps to program an infusion pump. It also saves time for the nurse by automatically recording the transaction to the patient’s electronic medical record.
St. Clair’s Leading Edge in Healthcare IT
St. Clair Hospital is among the national leaders in healthcare IT, having received numerous awards for achievement in this area. Notably, it was one of the first six hospitals in the United States, and the only one in Pennsylvania, to receive the coveted “Stage 6” designation, the highest possible award, from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society for achievements in electronic medical record adoption.
In 1992, St. Clair was the first hospital in the country to automate its pharmacy operations using robotics technology. Other hospitals, including Johns Hopkins Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center, soon followed
“With Hospira, St. Clair Hospital has now achieved an entirely closed loop of electronic medication management to create one of the safest possible environments for the patient,” said Richard Schaeffer, vice president and chief information officer at St. Clair Hospital, who led the original design and building of VeriScan. “It starts with electronic entry of the physician’s orders, continues all the way through delivery and infusion of the medication to the patient, and ends with the automatic updating of the patient’s electronic medical record. This will be the healthcare industry’s first medication management process that includes the real-time status of the medication infusion pump on the nurse’s handheld device so that the nurse can monitor the infusion status, even while not in the patient’s room. It will help virtually eliminate opportunity for manual programming errors.”
About Sculptor Developmental Technologies, Inc.
Sculptor Developmental Technologies, Inc., was established by St. Clair Health Corporation in 1993 to market its software solutions for healthcare. With the advent of VeriScan in 2003, Sculptor remains focused on bedside patient safety initiatives. Currently there are more than 125 hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and Europe using Sculptor's applications.
About St. Clair Hospital
St. Clair Hospital is a leading acute care hospital serving the approximately 400,000 residents of the South Hills of Pittsburgh with a comprehensive array of inpatient and outpatient services. The Hospital regularly receives state and national recognition for clinical excellence, patient safety, and information technology, including the 2007 Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence from VHA, and distinction as a best practice facility from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) for medication reconciliation.
St. Clair Hospital is one of the largest employers in the South Hills and is the only Pittsburgh area hospital to be named one of the 100 Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania for six consecutive years.
About Hospira
Hospira, Inc. is a global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company dedicated to Advancing Wellness™. As the world leader in specialty generic injectable pharmaceuticals, Hospira offers one of the broadest portfolios of generic acute-care and oncology injectables, as well as integrated infusion therapy and medication management solutions. Through its products, Hospira helps improve the safety, cost and productivity of patient care. The company is headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., and has more than 14,000 employees. Learn more at www.hospira.com.
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