Mediware Information Systems announces that the company has expanded its product portfolio through an agreement to market PathCollect®, a new software system designed specifically to manage the collection, labeling, and tracking of patient specimens during a hospital stay.

The company plans to offer this technology to hospitals throughout the US, with particular focus on the more than 600 acute care facilities using Mediware blood or medication management products.

"By ensuring that specimens are accurately labeled at the time of collection, PathCollect addresses a key patient safety concern for hospitals," said Thomas Mann, Mediware’s president and chief executive officer. "Through the use of our MediMAR and BloodSafe Tx bedside products, our customers — and the industry as a whole — are increasing their adoption of barcode point-of-care devices to improve patient safety and clinician efficiency. PathCollect is a natural extension that we expect to drive add-on sales."

The addition of PathCollect to Mediware’s product portfolio complements the company’s approach to blood collection with BloodSafe, mother’s milk with LacTrack and medication administration through MediMAR. Together the products bring a full suite of patient identification and safety for a single approach for nursing and respective departments.

PathCollect provides hospitals an easy to deploy, but powerful, technology solution to streamline sample collection and phlebotomy management. Using either wireless or non-wireless communication, PathCollect provides phlebotomists and nurses with an up-to-date mobile checklist that guides the caregiver through their standard operating procedures (SOPs) and helps ensure that the appropriate samples are collected during their rounds. Further, STAT and patient risk alerts can be instantaneously sent to the hospital laboratory where samples can be received and processed based on priority.

The implementation of PathCollect can be quick and cost effective. The system leverages 2D bar code technology that allows uninterrupted operation in both wireless and non-wireless environments seamlessly. PathCollect can also be deployed without expensive or time-consuming laboratory interfaces using sophisticated data capture tools provided by Mediware and their partners. In addition, the software can be deployed on a wide range of handheld units which allows hospitals to leverage devices currently in use to reduce the cost of implementation and support.

Mediware will have PathCollect on display with the company’s other bedside nursing technologies at the 42nd annual American Organization of Nurse Executives conference held April 16-19 in San Antonio, Tex. The full line includes:
 

  • MediMAR™ for bedside medication administration verification
  • MediREC™ for medication reconciliation
  • LacTrack® for mother’s milk administration and management
  • BloodSafe™ Tx for transfusion administration