Ekahau Enables 'Panic Button' for Locating Hospital Staff


Real Time Location Solution Powered by Ekahau Allows Employees to Send Alarm during
Emergency and Be Located Instantly by Security Staff

San Diego, CA (HIMSS Conference) --- February 13, 2006 --- Nurses, orderlies and other hospital staff were the victims of nearly 5,000 violent assaults in 2004, according to the most current sampling results from U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. In an effort to improve working conditions and ensure the safety of health care workers, Ekahau Inc. is offering a real-time location solution complete with alarm system that will allow security personnel to quickly identify where incidents are taking place and respond.

Ekahau's Real-Time Location System (RTLS) provides a personnel tracking solution that integrates with Wi-Fi networks already in operation in most hospitals and health care facilities. Using the RTLS's Ekahau Positioning Engine (EPE) 3.1 software and Ekahau T201 WLAN tags, hospital administrators and security personnel are able to track the location of doctors and nurses via an Intranet site on any web-enabled device. In an emergency situation, a hospital employee wearing the Ekahau tag can push its alarm button to summon help. The alarm signal can be routed to security personnel monitors as well as to their cell phones via SMS text message. 

"Ekahau's RTLS has long been used by hospitals to keep track of mobile equipment. But the RTLS also provides hospitals with a simple way to care for their most valuable assets - their employees," said Antti Korhonen, president and CEO of Ekahau.  "By offering versatile alarm routing in addition to our real-time location capabilities for employee safety applications, Ekahau is delivering a richer solution for the health care industry, as well as one that is cost-effective and can be set up in a matter of days."

Hospitals worldwide already are relying on the Ekahau RTLS to protect their employees. For example, Tuusula Hospital in Finland, Arras Central Hospital in Northern France and Mayores Hospital in Calhorra, Spain, have all selected Ekahau RTLS to improve their staff safety.

"The safety of our staff and patients has always been the number one priority for us. After our selection process of mobile nurse safety systems, Ekahau RTLS came out as the clear winner. Their system was cost effective and easy to deploy, and the underlying Wi-Fi network can be now also used for other data and voice communication purposes," said Tuusula hospital CFO Hellevi Norema.

"Personnel safety is just one of many applications that will arise from pervasive location-tracking solutions, such as Ekahau's RTLS," said Gemma Tedesco, senior analyst at In-Stat. "The ability of security personnel to quickly respond to emergency situations will likely prevent many unnecessary injuries and lead to an overall safer working environment in several industry sectors, including healthcare."

About Ekahau Inc.

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