San Diego-based asset-tracking firm Awarepoint wants to spread its real-time location system (RTLS) enterprise-wide, and just took a big step in that direction by acquiring Charlotte, N.C.-based Patient Care Technology Service (PTCS).
Awarepoint already has software for tracking equipment like wheelchairs, but needed a clinical platform to expand into tracking equipment, clinicians, patients and other assets in the ER, OR suite, at discharge, and other areas, company officials say. PCTS fits that bill with its clinical workflow system.
The two companies already have cooperative projects ongoing at three hospitals, with positive results from melding the two software systems, officials say. User Alan Gresch, Director, Corporate Clinical Engineering at Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care, credits the combined system with saving his hospital more than $850,000. "We eliminated an annual spend on pump rentals, totaling $150,000 and have re-deployed close to $700,000 worth of capital because we can now find assets and increased utilization by 20 percent," Gresch says.
Financial details of the deal haven't been disclosed, but Awarepoint may have paid a premium, admitting that they had to move fast in the face of several competing bidders for PCTS. The companies will maintain their current locations, and executive management, for the time being, according to company statements.
To learn more:
- read Awarepoint's press release
- here's a financial financial perspective from the San Diego Union Tribune