Press Releases

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Deploys Wireless Mobile Workstations From Flo Healthcare

(ATLANTA – August 29, 2006) Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (Packard Children’s), perennially ranked as one of the nation’s top hospitals, announced that it has deployed 100 wireless mobile clinical workstations from Flo Healthcare. These integrated devices will help the hospital increase patient safety at the point-of-care as it rolls out its electronic health record (EHR) initiative.

In 2005, Packard Children’s enacted Phase I of its EHR initiative, which entailed replacing its legacy clinical information system with its LINKS EHR system, said Dr. Jin Hahn, Packard Children’s Chief Medical Information Officer and a Professor of Neurology. However, the hospital didn’t have an adequate number of devices and workstations to deploy Phase I.

"We decided to implement a wireless network and wireless devices," Hahn said. "Part of this decision was due to space constraints—there was not enough room for more desktops. Wireless mobile workstations met our needs and allowed us more workstations in our work areas."

A team of project managers from Packard Children’s evaluated carts from various vendors that its healthcare IT vendor had approved for compatibility. From these, it narrowed down the pool based on the individual workstations’ cost effectiveness, ergonomics, and size. Finally, two companies remained, one of which was Flo Healthcare. The top two vendors then sent demo units to Packard Children’s, and the hospital’s nursing staff spent about a month testing and evaluating the units.

"From the top two vendors, we chose Flo Healthcare because the workstations were more compact and had a smaller footprint than other devices, and they were more aesthetically pleasing,” Hahn said.

Jenny Shaffer, Packard Children’s RN and Clinical Transformation Subject Matter Expert, said that the nurses wanted a workstation that was adjustable up and down, easy to push, compact so that it would not clutter hallways, and offered ample writing space. The Flo workstations met these requirements and offered plenty of storage and a long battery life.

Since Packard Children’s exclusively uses HP machines, Flo Healthcare’s readiness to customize its workstations to incorporate HP laptop computers and CPUs appealed to the hospital.

"Using HP technology is helpful because we can get a reduced price due to our relationship with HP, and also working with a single brand makes it much easier for our IT staff to manage and upkeep the devices," Hahn explained.

Packard Children’s went live with Phase I in September 2005 using 80 Flo 1750 mobile clinical workstations in all units of the children’s hospital. Today the carts number close to 100 and also can be found at the hospital’s ambulatory care center. Phase II, scheduled to go live in September 2007, will include increased online documentation from nursing and support services, integrated medication devices such as vital signs monitoring, and physician order entry (CPOE).

"An adequate number of devices is key to nursing documentation and CPOE success, so we plan to deploy many more devices at that time,” Hahn said.

Shaffer said the mobile workstations have proved useful in a variety of ways. For instance, the hospital has several floating intermediate rooms that sometimes double as general care units. The ability to have a computer in these areas when needed has been very convenient, she said. Other times, if a child is quarantined due to a contagious illness, the nurse can keep a workstation in the anteroom and avoid degowning every time she must input information into a computer. In addition, physicians take the COWs with them on rounds.

"We do not have a lot of real estate for desktop computers," Shaffer said. "Flo’s mobile workstations give nurses a desk-like feel so we have places to put things when we are looking up labs. They are like out-of-the-way desks, but there when we need them."

Keith Washington, Flo Healthcare VP and General Manager, noted that Packard Children’s dedication to patient safety is in line with Flo Healthcare’s mission to improve patient safety at the point of care. In 2003, Packard Children’s Board of Directors identified improvements in patient safety as its number one priority. In May 2006, Packard Children’s received an Excellence in Patient Safety & Health Care Quality Award, the fifth award in two years recognizing the hospital’s ongoing commitment to patient safety.

"Flo Healthcare has a long history of helping hospitals integrate wireless mobile computing devices at the point-of-care, and we are proud to work with Packard Children’s to strengthen its patient safety at the point-of-care," Washington said.

Flo Healthcare is teaming closely with Lucile Packard to ensure that training and rollout of the Flo mobile workstations is managed and aligned effectively with the health system's larger EHR initiative.

Like its new parent, Emerson Electric Co., Flo Healthcare has always concentrated on providing innovative, customer-focused, solution-oriented products. Such innovation has established Flo's original pedestal cart as the leading cart-based form factor in hospitals. This innovation is also reflected in the three U.S. patents (6,493,220; 6,721,178 and 7,009,840) that have been awarded to Flo to date that protect many of the (now essential) features found in Flo carts. Other patents are pending, and with the backing of its new parent, Flo expects to continue to focus on solution-oriented initiatives and fully protect its substantial investment in innovation.

About Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
Ranked annually as one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S.News & World Report, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is a 264-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers. Providing pediatric and obstetric medical and surgical services and associated with the Stanford University School of Medicine, Packard Children's offers patients locally, regionally and nationally a full range of health care programs and services, from preventive and routine care to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness and injury. For more information, visit www.lpch.org.

About Flo Healthcare
Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, Flo Healthcare designs comprehensive wireless and mobile clinical workstation solutions specifically for the healthcare industry. Flo Healthcare is part of Emerson Storage Solutions’ InterMetro (Metro) division. Like Emerson, which is focused on making people’s lives better through its products, systems and solutions, Flo Healthcare’s top priority is improving patient care and safety. By delivering a better connection to information, clinicians stay better connected with patients. Flo Healthcare works with clinical software, OEM business partners and value added resellers to deliver patented, integrated solutions — infrastructure, devices and services — to medical facilities. With 45,000 mobile devices and wireless infrastructure systems installed within approximately 800 hospitals, Flo Healthcare is the acknowledged leader in total hospital and system-wide wireless and mobile clinical workstation installations across the U.S. and Canada. For more information on Flo Healthcare, visit www.flohealthcare.com or call 877-FLO-4040. For more information about our parent company, Emerson, visit www.GoToEmerson.com.