Hemo Concepts Announces Partnership with Saint Lukes Hospital to Establish the Nation's First Hospital-based School for Integrated Blood Conservation

Business Wire - 05/26/05

EATONTOWN, N.J. -- Chronic blood shortages, escalating blood costs, and the fear of transfusion- related risks have sparked growing interest in alternatives to exposure to donor blood transfusions. Today, Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, the creator of Kansas City's first and only comprehensive blood conservation program, announces a partnership with Hemo Concepts, Inc., to provide the nation's first hospital-based school to train other health care providers how to develop and implement their own blood conservation programs.

The three-year agreement is with Hemo Concepts, Inc., an integrated blood conservation company based in Eatontown, New Jersey, that provides programs and advanced technology to more than 40 hospitals throughout the nation. The Hemo Concepts School of Integrated Blood Conservation at Saint Luke's Hospital consists of on-site, hands-on training in integrated blood conservation techniques and technology, combined with the expertise of Hemo Concept's patent-pending e-BOS(R) (Evidence Based Outcomes System).

Prior to the partnership, access to the school has been limited to classes conducted at Hemo Concept's New Jersey headquarters.

"Since 2000, Saint Luke's has been a regional leader in offering its patients multiple approaches and techniques that eliminate the need for donor blood transfusions by minimizing blood loss before, during and after surgery," said Gary A. Thompson, M.D., Medical Director of Saint Luke's Blood Conservation Program. "The partnership marries the expertise and hands-on experience that Saint Luke's has to offer with Hemo Concept's proven turnkey program, which helps hospitals reduce the need for donor blood transfusions and improves their patient outcomes."

"We are proud to announce this partnership with one of the nation's finest hospitals," said Damon Keeley, Chairman and CEO of Hemo Concepts. This collaborative arrangement will allow physicians and nurses from Saint Luke's and from all over the country to receive on-site, hands-on training on integrated blood conservation techniques and technology from the world's leading experts." The American Association of Blood Banks reports there are approximately 12 million units of red blood cells transfused annually in the United States. At a cost of approximately $500 per unit transfused, this represents a $6.0 billion cost to the U.S. healthcare industry each year.

Hemo Concepts estimates that if all U.S. hospitals utilized integrated blood conservation programs, its patent-pending e-BOS(R) Internet technology could deliver the education and training necessary to reduce the number of red blood cell transfusions in the country by more than six million units per year, resulting in savings of more than $3 billion annually. In its first year of working with Hemo Concepts, Fairview Hospital, a member of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, reduced its red blood cell transfusions by nearly 20%, resulting in approximately $450,000 in savings.

In addition to their classroom time at the School, learning how to treat patients without donor blood transfusions, students will be trained in how to utilize the myriad of integrated blood conservation tools available within e-BOS(R), which delivers learning modules from world-renowned clinicians, a Quality Management System, policies and procedures and a database management system. To launch a patient-ready integrated blood conservation program on its own, Hemo Concepts estimates that the average U.S. hospital will spend approximately $300,000 training its employees over a 24-month period. e-BOS(R) will allow that same hospital to launch a successful, patient-ready, integrated blood conservation program within six months.

"The nation's finest hospitals are adopting our methodology and setting a new standard of healthcare in the U.S.," said Keeley. "Due to severe blood shortages, escalating costs and complications associated with donor blood transfusions, U.S. hospitals are seeking ways to reduce their dependence on donor blood transfusions. Our programs, taught by the finest doctors and nurses in the nation, will arm hospitals with reliable, cost-cutting training programs that will save them thousands of dollars annually and protect patients from unnecessary health risks associated with blood transfusions."

COMPANY BACKGROUND

About Hemo Concepts(SM)

Hemo Concepts, Inc., Eatontown, NJ, was founded in 1991 to provide hospitals with auto transfusion services (ATS), a method of blood conservation used during surgery. In 1999 Hemo Concepts began providing Integrated Blood Conservation (IBC) programs and advanced technology to hospitals and today serves more than 40 hospitals nationwide; providing ATS services, administering IBC programs and providing Blood Conservation Training through their Bloodless Medicine and Surgery Institute (BMSI).

About Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City

Saint Luke's Hospital, a 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner and Magnet hospital, is a member of Saint Luke's Health System. The health system consists of nine area hospitals and many primary care practices, and provides a range of primary, acute, tertiary and chronic care services. The system is an organization in which the physicians and hospitals, functioning as an integrated unit, assume responsibility for the delivery of comprehensive, cost-effective, quality health care for people in the metropolitan Kansas City area and the surrounding region.