Updates

Underscoring Commitment to Its National Hospital Incident Response System, PortBlue Creates Post of Manager, Healthcare Solutions

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - PortBlue (www.portblue.com), a leading provider of web-based expertise deployment systems, today announced the appointment of Beverly A. Barrett to the new post of Manager, Healthcare Solutions.  In this position, Barrett will be responsible for overseeing PortBlue’s healthcare-based products, including the company’s new national Hospital Incident Response System (HIRS), and various custom web-based applications for the healthcare industry.Barrett brings more than 20 years’ experience with companies such as Bergen Brunswig, Baxter, Owen Healthcare, Cerner Corporation, and Misys Healthcare Systems.  Her expertise extends to the sales and management of a diverse group of healthcare and information system segments, including electronic medical records, practice management, supply-chain, health care information systems, pharmacy automation, decision support and managed care.  She has a proven record for developing clients and sales and managing client relationships.  Barrett graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology.“With HIRS as the centerpiece of our disaster management systems offerings, we are delighted to welcome Beverly to PortBlue,” said Paul Dimitruk, founder and CEO of PortBlue.  “She has a wealth of knowledge that will prove invaluable to creating and maintaining relationships within the healthcare sector.  Her commitment to product quality, superior service delivery and strategic client relationships supports PortBlue’s commitment to making HIRS the benchmark for disaster management systems.”Among Barrett’s key mandates will be to further the implementation of the HIRS platform.  HIRS provides hospitals with the means to assure their disaster management programs meet best practices and that they are compliant with the requirements of the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).  HIRS incorporates the HEICS (Hospital Emergency Incident Command System) and NIMS (National Incident Management System) standards. HIRS includes protocols for at least 32 different hazards including fires, hurricanes, floods, terrorist strikes, pandemics, and earthquakes as well as for less common scenarios such as hazmat exposure, hospital infant abductions, a communications failure or radiological exposure.  During an incident HIRS operates as a comprehensive work process tool, providing each key organizational function (e.g., incident commander, logistics, materiel, communications) with an interactive, real-time dashboard for managing its roles and interacting with all other functions. Each function is provided with job action sheets customized for the specific incident and roles being performed.  The incident commander and other authorized users can view the status of all functions in relationship to assigned tasks, levels of critical materiel, staffing and so forth.  Post-incident, HIRS helps guide the recovery stage, captures lessons learned, andentifies remediation opportunities.PortBlue recently completed the initial testing of HIRS with Intermountain Health Care (IHC).  IHC is recognized both as one of the country’s leading hospital systems and a trailblazer in adopting technology to improve the environment of care it provides for its patients.Latter Day Saints Hospital (LDSH), the flagship IHC facility, participated in the earthquake and fire hazard simulation in conjunction with PortBlue in late 2005.  The LDSH team unanimously concluded that the system exceeded required elements of emergency coordination.  The group reported that HIRS gave the emergency management team critical capacity and other information, dynamically generated customized task lists required in their response to the specific incident as it evolved, and improved overall response time.  One official indicated that HIRS performed like a competitor’s system “on steroids.”About PortBlue CorporationFounded in Los Angeles in 2000, PortBlue Corporation (www.portblue.com) provides a highly innovative system for building web-based expertise deployment systems. The practical know-how of recognized experts is rapidly transformed into web-based training, work process and decision-support tools and systems in the form of PortBlue hosted applications accessible 24/7. PortBlue’s systems effectively mentor and guide users – be they employees, customers, or trainees -- through tasks and processes to optimal decisions and outcomes. For more information contact:Ken GreenbergEdge Communications, Inc.Phone: (818) 990-5001Email: ken@edgecommunicationsinc.comChristian MaasSenior Vice President for Knowledge ProductsPortBlue CorporationPhone: (310) 566-7222Email: christian.maas@portblue.com