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Biggest Belgian University Hospital Group Chooses SATO’s ID Wristbands to Assure Patient Safety and Comfort

Brussels, 10 July 2006 – SATO, the world’s leading manufacturer of label and barcode printers and a specialist in bringing the benefits of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) to the healthcare sector, has successfully implemented a patient ID solution at the Belgian UZ Leuven hospital group.

With almost 2.000 beds, more than 8.000 staff members and about 65.000 admissions per year, UZ Leuven is the biggest university hospital group in Belgium, serving patients on five different campi in the greater Leuven region.

To further enhance its medical safety standards, UZ Leuven has decided to rely on SATO for the supply of special patient wristbands and barcode printers. The other main driver for implementing this type of high-accuracy system was the understanding that positive patient identification is the basis for greater treatment efficiency. It allows patients to undergo treatment in an optimised manner, and reliably eliminates the risks of mistreatments even further.

The hospital’s number one concern in choosing the right kind of solution was quality in terms of patient comfort and well-being. Several wristband suppliers were tested during the evaluation process, but finally only SATO’s superior quality patient wristbands matched the strict requirements for softness, flexibility, and user-friendliness.

The implementation of the project was carried out by SATO’s business partner CODIPACK NV, who installed a total system of 17 CT400 thermal transfer printers with SATO soft wristbands for adults and infants. UZ Leuven’s own IT Department implemented its integration with the existing patient registration system. The printers are situated at the registration desks for patient admissions and at the maternity ward. Upon a patient’s admission, the registration staff uses the CT400 printer to generate a personalized wristband containing basic patient information and the patient’s unique verifier number - stored with human readable text, as well as barcode.

UZ Leuven’s main campus (Gasthuisberg), as well as three others (campus Sint Pieter, campus Pellenberg and campus Sint André (Lubbeek)), have been employing this solution since the 1st of July 2005 and the general experience and patient feedback have been very positive.

“Adopting this unique system of wristband identification is one of the key corner stones for the further development of projects targeting patient safety, quality systems (tracking) and efficiency enhancement at UZ Leuven.”, states Mr. Rudy Poedts, Head of Medical Administration at the UZ Leuven hospital group.

SATO’s Healthcare ID Solutions offering covers the entire spectrum of medical identification needs: from the individually printed, machine-readable patient wristband, barcode labels for blood samples or blood transfusion bags to asset tracking systems. SATO’s patient wristbands, for either direct thermal or thermal transfer printing, are available in many different versions. Whether the particularly robust standard version or the soft version formulated especially for sensitive skin and infants, all types remain legible even after extended exposure to water, abrasion, cleaners and everyday wear. The printer used by the SATO Healthcare ID System is the compact CT400, which, with its antimicrobial coating, was specifically designed for applications in medical environments.

Efficient data processing is a key issue in today's healthcare market, as the complex processes can no longer be managed without automatic data collection systems. As a pioneer of reliable medical information management, SATO is contributing to this evolution by applying its founding principles of offering accuracy and resource savings to its customers.