Pennsylvania First to Establish Statewide Real-Time Computer Network to Link
Hospital Emergency Rooms
MALVERN, Pa., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Siemens Medical Solutions,
a unit of Siemens USA, announced today the commencement of implementation of a
"Health Surveillance Network" that will link emergency rooms across the state.
The program is the first of this scale to be in operation under federal
homeland security legislation authorizing each state to institute a program to
proactively detect potential bioterrorism threats, disease outbreaks, and
epidemics. For the past nine months, Siemens has been working with
Pennsylvania health officials to design and roll out a cost-effective computer
network to link up to 225 hospital emergency departments across the
Commonwealth. This initiative is one prong in the comprehensive homeland
security programs Siemens is providing to U.S. states, cities and private
enterprises.
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"This is a critical step in the Commonwealth's effort to improve its
public health infrastructure and the program will serve as a model for other
states as they begin to assess their preparedness in the event of a
bioterrorism attack," said John Kijewski, group vice president, Technology
Services at Siemens. "Hospitals now will be able to communicate real-time
healthcare information to public health agencies automatically, without manual
data entry. This will facilitate the early detection of syndromic trends and
potential bioterrorism events in the state. Siemens is proud to offer its
resources and technologies to this important endeavor."
Since the fall of 2001, Siemens and Pinnacle Health System have
participated in a pilot program. Siemens served as the pipeline for
Pinnacle's emergency department data, de-identifying patient data to protect
patients' privacy and sending the data to a surveillance system to be stored,
analyzed, and made available to regional public health agencies for
surveillance purposes. This pilot helped establish a proof-of-concept for
real-time syndromic surveillance. Today's announcement reflects the
Commonwealth's commitment to helping achieve full coverage throughout its
hospitals statewide.
"Pinnacle is among the first hospitals to link its emergency rooms across
two of our facilities because we understood the immediate benefit that such a
network would bring not only to the communities we serve but also to our
nation's safety," said Dr. James Taylor, Pinnacle's medical director of its
Emergency Department. "Siemens is providing the network, which when combined
with a surveillance system, will dramatically increase our preparedness in the
event of a bioterrorist attack. That is, we will be able to identify and
contain any symptoms or outbreaks we see, thereby potentially saving many
lives. We are excited that the Health Department is working with Siemens and
other hospital networks to help them join the network to make it as
comprehensive as possible."
Siemens' information technologies already are being used by many
Pennsylvania hospitals. Siemens Medical Solutions captures registration data
for 50 percent of emergency department visits in Pennsylvania at its
Information Systems Center in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The company also manages
health information systems for more than 35 percent of the Commonwealth's
non-federal hospitals, remotely hosting these information systems for
approximately 28 percent of the hospitals. Nationwide, Siemens captures
registration data for 25 percent of emergency department visits. With this
substantial network already in operation, the data pipeline for the Health
Surveillance Network can be created quickly and the operational and financial
impact on the hospitals will be minimal.
About Siemens:
Siemens AG (NYSE: SI), headquartered in Munich, is a leading global
electronics and engineering company. It employs 426,000 people in
192 countries and reported worldwide sales of more than $84 billion in fiscal
2002 (10/1/01 - 9/30/02). The United States is Siemens' largest market in
the world, with sales of more than $21 billion in fiscal 2002 and more than
74,000 employees in all 50 states. Corporate headquarters for Siemens' U.S.
businesses are located in New York City. For more information:
http://www.usa.siemens.com
The Health Surveillance Network is one of the many services that Siemens
has initiated to help the nation improve homeland security. In 2002, the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) awarded Siemens and The Boeing
Company a contract to install and maintain explosives detection systems at the
438 U.S. airports serving commercial aviation. The contract also included
training approximately 30,000 airport baggage-screening employees. Siemens
was selected because of its experience providing airport solutions throughout
the world, its technological expertise and service resources.
In addition to the health and transportation sectors, Siemens is providing
public and private organizations with products and services that dramatically
improve security in the areas of telecommunications, power, information
technology and building technologies.
About Siemens Medical Solutions:
Siemens Medical Solutions (SMS) is a business unit of Siemens AG with
headquarters in Malvern, Pennsylvania and Erlangen, Germany. It is one of the
largest suppliers to the healthcare industry in the world. SMS is renowned for
its innovative products, including imaging systems for diagnosis, therapy
equipment for treatment, hearing instruments, and critical care and life
support systems, as well as a wide array of information technology and data
management solutions that optimize workflow and improve outcomes for
hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices.
Known as the premiere health information application service provider, the
company processes over 140 million transactions daily. Employing approximately
31,000 people worldwide, the company reported sales of 7.6 billion EUR, orders
of 8.4 billion EUR and EBIT of 1 billion EUR for fiscal 2002 . More
information can be obtained by visiting http://www.siemensmedical.com.
SOURCE Siemens Medical Solutions
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