Underutilization of current facilities, in part due to pressure from private and public insurers to reduce inpatient admissions, and the costs of new construction or expansion, have combined to require a new look at what the scale of new or expanded facilities should be. Some experts believe that the "critical access hospital" approach, originally designed to help in the design of hospitals serving rural areas, can be applied to hospital construction and expansion. They also take a critical look at issues such as minimizing the steps nurses and physicians need to walk in performing their duties, and providing effective multi-lingual wayfinding help within a facility. This "zero-based" approach can lead to construction budgets that are easier to manage and facilities that are more space- and energy-efficient.

Watch this three minute video to learn how Baycare Health depends on Emerson Network Power to ensure their IT systems perform reliably. See why experts depend on us to provide the power, cooling, and monitoring systems needed for successful, efficient, and available access to critical information.

Can you do a patient monitor PM in five minutes? Introducing comprehensive patient monitor quality and safety testing in minutes. ProSim 8 Vital Signs Simulator.

• Significant reduction in patient monitor test time
• 10 seconds to eight synchronous patient simulations

Visit http://www.flukebiomedical.com/prosim for more info.

Whether locking or latching, Illinois Lock Company has a keyless solution. From simple thumb-turn latches, slot, hex, and knob locks to our D900 five number mechanical push button lock.

We also offer cam locks for every situation. Let our engineering staff design custom cam locks for your application.

The TD-4100C is a "closed cell" version of the world industry standard TD-4100 Oil in Water Monitor. It was designed for normally clean water applications or dirty water applications where fouling can be controlled by chemical injection or external cleaning systems.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a critical component of the healthcare facility environment and can affect patient outcomes directly. For hospitals in particular, management of the HVAC system and its role in IAQ is extremely complex, with different types of spaces within the building having different requirements. Experts from around the HVAC and healthcare sectors weigh in on the latest IAQ and HVAC management schemes.

In addition to being a contributing factor in patient safety, comfort, and outcome, a hospital's HVAC system can have a significant impact on the facility's energy consumption. The extensive HVAC systems installed at the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, are said to cut energy consumption by over 30%.

A functioning human heart, even a poorly functioning one, is in constant motion, requiring some form of compensating method to arrive at clinically usable results. A new cardiac CT unit from GE Healthcare offers "intelligent motion correction," which is claimed to automate the compensation process, providing clinicians with more precise visualization of blood vessel location. The unit, for which the company is awaiting 501(k) clearance from the FDA, delivers a radiation dose of less than 1 mSv.

Proton therapy offers several advantages over other forms of radiation therapy, including tighter control over dosage, beam shape, and depth of tissue penetration. The major obstacles to wider acceptance of the technology have been the exorbitant cost and the amount of space required to house the synchrocyclotron that generates the protons. Mevion Medical believes it has solved the problems and is offering a system based on a particle accelerator that is only 6 ft in diameter addressing both the cost and space issues.

The BACnet® enabled Model MRMS provides remote viewing and alarming of room pressure and condition for up to eight critical areas equipped with Setra's Model SRPM or SRCM room pressure monitors. Easy to install, the MRMS reduces labor, installation costs, and improves productivity.

Brentwood Plastics, Inc. manufactures ETO and gamma sterilizable polyethylene (LDPE) films for surgical drapes, medical device packaging, and medical devices. We offer a full line of radio and laser opaque films, custom perforating for specific applications, anti-static films for drapes and packaging, and more.

A new report from IDC Health Insights, "Best Practices: Establishing Sustainable Health Information Exchange," attempts to explain how and why some HIEs succeed (and are in a minority), and many struggle. The research is based on interviews with 50 IT executives of enterprise, regional, and statewide HIE organizations, and contains solid advice on the transformational process of developing a healthy HIE.

Cloud computing is all the rage, even if not everyone is quite sure what it is. Given the privacy and security concerns surrounding EHRs, and the general conception that cloud computing may not be the most secure approach, cloud-based systems for EHR management are not that common. But one Boston-based healthcare system found itself building its own cloud when it followed the path it started on when it adopted EHRs in 2008.

"Retained surgical item" is a neat term for the result of sloppy OR procedures. Human frailties being what they are, technology can sometimes be employed to overcome them. Surgical sponges containing RFID tags are not new, but one supplier has expanded its line of readers to include a model with an integral disposal basin that counts outgoing sponges.

Video surveillance in a hospital setting faces a whole list of challenges, some technological, and some, such as the privacy requirements of HIPPA, regulatory. Some of the technological challenges are being met by systems being upgraded from analog VGA to HD digital over a network. This approach can also help address some of the regulatory issues.

The financial and emotional investment in an IVF treatment is substantial. The right CO2-incubator will reduce the failure rate.

The BINDER CB-series CO2-Incubators are especially designed for the requirements of IVF. The unique ANTI.PLENUM Design — including a deep-drawn inner chamber without any corners — and hot air sterilization reduce the risk of contamination to a minimum.

Exergen's experience with its Medical Division provides the experience and background required to assist medical device manufacturers, because we are one with the Temporal Scanner product line.

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