Korchek Announces AABB Grant- Korchek Technologies, Trumbull, CT is pleased to announce the award of a grant to the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) to promote Transfusion Safety and Patient Blood Management. The grant will be utilized to educate transfusion service professionals in emerging technologies that improve patient care. Commemoration of the grant will take place at the AABB annual convention October 22-25 in San Diego, CA. For more information go to www.aabb.org or www.korchek.com.

Korchek is pleased to announce their “Commitment to the Community” campaign. As part of the campaign all Korchek employees are volunteering with the Special Olympics of Connecticut. Korchek personnel will be participating in the following events.

Date: August 27, 2011
Event: Dream Ride 2011
Location: Farmington, CT
After ten years and over $1,165,000 in fundraising, Dream Ride is back and better than ever. Since 2001, this special event has brought motorcycle riders and car enthusiasts together to celebrate the achievements of Special Olympics Athletes, as well as help raise awareness and funds for a worthy cause.

Volunteer Contact: Adam McCarthy – amccarty@bozzutos.com

Date: September 10 & 11, 2011
Event: 2011 Fall Sports Festival
Location: North Branford, CT
The 2011 Fall Sports Festival wouldn't be possible without the thousands of amazing volunteers that come out in support of our athletes! Please become one of them and join us at the Fall Sport Festival on September 10th and 11th in North Branford (Softball), West Haven (Bocce) and Hamden (Golf). You can volunteer for a few hours, an entire day, or the entire weekend!

Volunteer Contact: Katie Femiak – kathrynf@soct.org

Korchek is a Trumbull based healthcare software and service provider. The company provides the CareChek Patient Identification System, as well as blood bank validation and data conversions.

The Partnership for Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs is a new public-private partnership that will help improve the quality, safety and affordability of health care for all Americans.

TRUMBULL, CT. – Korchek Technologies, a leading provider of consulting services and software in the Healthcare Industries, has extended their contract with LifePoint Hospitals of Brentwood TN to perform regulatory compliance validation at all of their facilities.

Korchek performed the Phase I validation of the Haemonetics SafeTrace Tx blood bank system in 2010. The 2011 rollout schedule will include 18 more facilities.
About Korchek; Korchek is the manufacturer of the CareChek patient identification system that uses mobile technology and bar-code scanning to improve patient safety. The system improves patient safety for medication administration, blood product administration, specimen collection, and breast milk matching. The system has already been 510k cleared by the Food and Drug Administration and recently received a CON from the DoD. CareChek meets strict U.S. Army and Department of Defense (DoD) standards for security, compatibility and sustainability.
About LifePoint Hospitals; LifePoint Hospitals is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol "LPNT." Established in May of 1999 as a spin-off of HCA, Inc., LifePoint owns and operates general acute care hospitals located in growing non-urban communities— the most rapidly growing sector of the national healthcare industry. In most cases, the LifePoint facility is the only hospital in the community.

TRUMBULL, CT. - Korchek Technologies, a leading provider of consulting services and software in the Healthcare Industries, has received a Certification of Networthiness (CON) from the Department of Defense (DoD) for the CareChek Patient Identification system.

The CareChek system uses mobile technology and bar-code scanning to improve patient safety. The system has a modular design for medication administration, blood product administration, specimen collection, and breast milk matching. The system has already been 510k cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.
This accreditation ensures that CareChek meets strict U.S. Army and Department of Defense (DoD) standards for security, compatibility and sustainability. This enables DoD hospitals to improve patient safety, streamline patient care, and meet regulatory requirements.
The CoN is required for all enterprise software products in the Army Enterprise Infrastructure Network. The certification also applies to all National Guard, Army Reserve and DoD organizations that use the Army Enterprise Infrastructure Network.

The Joint Commission's (TJC) number-one National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) for 10 years running expects hospitals to "improve the accuracy of patient identification." "The intent for this goal is two-fold: first, to reliably identify the individual as the person for whom the service or treatment is intended; second, to match the service or treatment to that individual."

Currently, the goal does not require utilizing positive ID technology. However, when matching blood products with patients, an accompanying note in the most recent "standards of performance" reads: "If two individuals are not available, an automated identification technology (for example, bar coding) may be used in place of one of the individuals."
Bar coding has slipped, almost unnoticed, into The Joint's playbook. However, I believe it won't be too long before bar coding will be moved from an example to an expectation for fulfilling the first NPSG. In the meantime, I anticipate that over half of our nation's hospitals will have voluntarily implemented bar coding at the point of care (BPOC) before TJC actually presses the issue. We're somewhere near the 30 percent mark today.
So, what is your hospital doing to improve the accuracy of patient identification? Does your game plan include implementing BPOC?

August 27, 2010 - New technologies are constantly being developed and refined to increase the efficiency and safety of medical care and many institutions and individuals are embracing these new technologies. The days are numbered for pen and paper systems as the stimulus package’s Health Information Technology—Meaningful Use and Standards legislation is offering, first, incentives for the adoption of electronic health records in physician’s offices and hospitals and then after four years, penalizations for the lack of adoption of this technology.

DeKalb Memorial Hospital of Auburn, IN would like to announce they have entered into an agreement with Korchek Technologies and Orchard Software to obtain the CareChek Patient Identification system. CareChek uses bar-code scanning to improve patient safety by eliminating errors associated with medication administration, blood product transfusions, specimen collection, and breast milk feeding. The CareChek system will help DeKalb use information technology in a “meaningful way” in conjunction with The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and also complying with requirements for the College of American Pathology (CAP) and Joint Commission (JCAHO).
Korchek is a Trumbull, CT based healthcare information technology company. DeKalb has been a dedicated user of Orchard and will be upgrading to their latest system, Orchard Harvest LIS v8.5. Orchard Software Corporation, founded in 1993, is headquartered in Carmel, IN.

The push to make better use of IT in healthcare is nothing new. The recently signed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)proposes Medicare/Medicaid incentive payments for providers that use IT in a "meaningful way". Click on the link to find qualifications for "meaningful use". One of the primary goals of meaningful use is improving patient safety.

TRUMBULL, CT. (11/07/2009) - Korchek Technologies, a leading provider of consulting services and software in the healthcare industry, has released a blood bank report package for Horizon Blood Bank and SafeTrace Tx.