Hill-Rom Announces Two Key Agreements to Enhance Navicare(r) Watchchild(r) Solution Adding to Effectiveness of Perinatal Monitoring

Date 2008-06-23 | About Hillenbrand

Hill-Rom today announced two new agreements to enhance and add integrated functions and value for the company's NaviCare(R) WatchChild(R) solution.

The agreement with AirStrip Technologies brings the value of the innovative AirStrip OB(TM) product. This state-of-the-art software application allows obstetricians to use their own PDAs and Smartphones to remotely access virtual real-time waveform data for both the mother and fetus, increasing the physician's ability to closely monitor their patients. The interface between Hill-Rom's WatchChild solution and AirStrip OB will be configured to function with Hill-Rom's original WatchChild solution as well as the enhanced version introduced this past April.

In addition, Hill-Rom's relationship with ExitCare, L.L.C. will integrate an educational component, the ExitCare Labor & Delivery product, consisting of hundreds of Labor & Delivery patient education topics augmented with color illustrations. ExitCare Labor & Delivery provides an important tool to facilitate communication between clinicians with patients and family members.

"The NaviCare WatchChild solution has been extremely well received since the introduction of the enhanced version just a little over two months ago," said Adam McMullin, vice president, Marketing and Strategy, Hill-Rom IT Solutions. "We are excited to form relationships with two innovative partners in AirStrip Technologies and ExitCare, L.L.C. to enhance the value of our WatchChild solutions. We know these additions will help caregivers help their patients and ultimately, enhance outcomes for them. That's a powerful proposition and one we are pleased to be able to bring to market together."

The newly introduced, enhanced WatchChild solution evolved from a recognized need to provide an integrated and intuitive way to manage obstetrical operations, including reporting, communication, care plan development, skin and fall assessment screening and operating room record/pre-anesthesia checklists. The NaviCare WatchChild solution also offers state-of-the-art data archiving capability to help manage long-and-short-term liability risks for hospitals and caregivers. Both relationships announced today will extend and expand ease of use for caregivers, in turn, enhancing outcomes for their patients.

The NaviCare WatchChild solution is part of the NaviCare(R) Clinical Operations Platform. In February 2008, Hill-Rom introduced an enhanced NaviCare Clinical Operations Platform designed to support hospital efforts to provide improved patient safety, quality of care and operational efficiency.

ABOUT AIRSTRIP TECHNOLOGIES, L.P.

Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, AirStrip Technologies is a pioneer in mobile, medical software applications designed to work across any platform. The core technology team is committed to bringing best-of-breed products to the market that enhance the ability of physicians and healthcare professionals to perform their work on a daily basis with the added assurances that their patients are being provided the best care available. Visit www.airstriptech.com for more information.

ABOUT EXITCARE, LLC

ExitCare, LLC is a privately held company formed in 1996 to create patient education content and software. ExitCare is a consumer healthcare information company providing enterprise wide patient education solutions, meeting the needs of the office-based physician to the hospital's Labor and Delivery, Surgery, Emergency Departments and overall inpatient needs. The text is augmented with color illustrations to enhance the patient's understanding. Common topics have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Tagolog, Haitian Creole and Vietnamese. The Company will add Canadian French in 2008. ExitCare is installed in hundreds of patient care sites nationwide.

  www.exitcare.com

  ABOUT HILL-ROM

Hill-Rom is a leading worldwide manufacturer and provider of medical technologies and related services for the health care industry, including patient support systems, non-invasive therapeutic products for a variety of acute and chronic medical conditions, medical equipment rentals, and information technology solutions. Hill-Rom's comprehensive product and service offerings are used by health care providers across the health care continuum in hospitals, extended care facilities and home care settings to enhance the safety and quality of patient care.

  Hill-Rom ... enhancing outcomes for patients and their caregivers.
  www.hill-rom.com

  Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release contain forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, regarding the Company's future plans, objectives, beliefs, expectations, representations and projections. The Company has tried, wherever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as "intend," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "encourage," "expect," "may," "goal," "become," "pursue," "estimate," "strategy," "will," "projection," "forecast," "continue," "accelerate," "promise," "increase," "higher," "lower," "reduce," "improve," "expand," "progress," "potential" or the negative of those terms or other variations of them or by comparable terminology. The absence of such terms, however, does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. It is important to note that forward- looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those set forth in any forward- looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: the Company's dependence on its relationships with several large group purchasing organizations, whether the Company's new products are successful in the marketplace, changes in customers' Medicare reimbursements, collections of accounts receivable, compliance with FDA regulations, antitrust litigation, potential exposure to product liability or other claims, failure of the Company's announced strategic initiatives and restructuring and realignment activities to achieve expected growth, efficiencies or cost reductions, disruptions in the Company's business or other adverse consequences resulting from the recent spin-off of the funeral service business, failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the spin-off, failure of the Company to execute its acquisition and business alliance strategy through the consummation and successful integration of acquisitions or entry into joint ventures or other business alliances, increased costs or unavailability of raw materials, labor disruptions, the ability to retain executive officers and other key personnel, and certain tax-related matters. For a more in depth discussion of these and other factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements, see the discussions under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended September 30, 2007, its Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on March 17, 2008, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE: Hill-Rom

CONTACT: Hill-Rom Media: Lauren Green-Caldwell, Director, Corporate
Communications & Public Relations, +1-812-934-8692,
[email protected]; or Hill-Rom Investor Relations:
Blair A. (Andy) Rieth, Jr., Vice President, Investor Relations, Corporate
Communications & Global Brand Development, +1-812-931-2199,
[email protected]

Web site: https://www.airstriptech.com/
https://www.exitcare.com/
https://www.hill-rom.com/