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This three-year agreement, with options to extend, positions Ekahau asthe preferred provider of RTLS solutions to UHC's 294 member hospitalsthroughout the United States. Many of these institutions have Wi-Fi in placetoday making Ekahau's WI-Fi-based RTLS solution a logical choice for acost-effective, quick deployment. Ekahau also has mutual certifications withall leading Wi-Fi infrastructure providers, further endorsing the benefits ofEkahau's location tracking solution to UHC and its member hospitals.
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RTLS systems have become a mainstream technology in hospitals across theU.S. for tracking assets, inventory and patients and knowing the whereaboutsof key staff members. Knowing the real-time whereabouts of these key assetshas become mission critical to healthcare institutions, helping them reducecosts, improve workflow and increase the quality and timeliness of patientcare.
"UHC is excited about entering into a new agreement with Ekahau becausewe believe they are one of the best RTLS system providers for our memberhospitals," said Cindy White, UHC's vice president of operations. "We wanteda system that can cater to the unique tracking needs of each of our memberhospitals and yet be simple and cost-effective to deploy."
Ekahau RTLS is a unique tracking system because it can locate objectsusing a hospital's existing Wi-Fi network, regardless of vendor or generationof the infrastructure. The Ekahau system is the only Wi-Fi-based system onthe market that is capable of providing room-level accuracy using Wi-Fiwithout deploying proprietary chokepoints or readers, which can causeinterference with medical equipment. Since Wi-Fi is typically deployedhospitalwide, Ekahau RTLS can extend location visibility across the entirecampus or several campuses without any additional costs.
"We are very honored that UHC selected Ekahau as its RTLS partner ofchoice and to have the opportunity to serve the organization's memberhospitals. The program we have put into place with UHC will allow UHC membersto easily procure and roll out RTLS solutions to meet immediate needs and tohave a platform for future growth and expandability as new requirements areput forth," said Tuomo Rutanen, Ekahau's vice president of businessdevelopment. "During challenging economic times, like those we'reexperiencing today, RTLS systems can help businesses of all types save money.By leveraging existing Wi-Fi networks, Ekahau RTLS allows hospitals to betterutilize their existing assets, resulting in lower capital spending, whiledriving significant operational efficiencies that reduce expenses and supportimproved patient care and safety initiatives."
Ekahau holds more than a dozen patents on its core location algorithmsand processes that allow for the full modeling and analysis of RF data fromthe Wi-Fi network. Ekahau also offers the broadest set of Wi-Fi tagsavailable to meet user- or application-specific needs. This powerfulcombination of software and hardware has been selected by thousands ofcustomers worldwide to solve everyday business and operational problems.
About UHC
The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), formed in 1984, is analliance of 103 academic medical centers and 191 of their affiliatedhospitals representing approximately 90 percent of the nation's nonprofitacademic medical centers. UHC offers its members specific programs andservices to improve clinical, operational, and patient safety performance.The mission of UHC is to advance knowledge, foster collaboration, and promotechange to help members succeed in their respective markets. For moreinformation, visit http://www.uhc.edu.
About Ekahau Inc.
Ekahau Inc. is the industry leader in providing Wi-Fi-based RTLSsolutions. Ekahau's customers, including several Fortune 500 companiesworldwide, are realizing the benefits of Wi-Fi based location services andinnovative Wi-Fi network planning and optimization tools. Ekahau's solutionsare being used in more than 150 hospitals around the world, as well as bymanufacturers, mining/oil/gas companies, government agencies and themilitary. Ekahau partners include wireless software developers, leadingsystem integrators and international OEM partners, who develop and marketwireless enterprise applications. Ekahau is a U.S. based corporation, withoffices in Saratoga, Calif.; Reston, Va.; Helsinki, Finland; and Hong Kong,China. For more information about Ekahau, please visit athttp://www.ekahau.com.
(c) Copyright 2009, Ekahau, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SOURCE Ekahau Inc.
