Methodist Healthcare Selects Sprint and GE Healthcare for Cost-Effective, Reliable Wireless Communications

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. & WAUKESHA, Wis., Apr 06, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
S | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Sprint (NYSE: S | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and GE Healthcare today announced that Methodist
Healthcare (San Antonio, Texas) has signed a substantial, multi-million
dollar contract for a complete, innovative wireless infrastructure,
software and services. The deployment supports Methodist Healthcare's
vision to enhance patient outcomes by enabling anywhere and anytime
communication among caregivers as well as continuous, remote access to
life-critical vital sign data.

"Wireless communication plays an integral role in getting information to
clinicians at the right time and in the right place, helping to speed
clinical decision-making and deliver exceptional patient care throughout
the continuum of care," said Eddie Cuellar, CIO of Methodist Healthcare.
"Our decision to collaborate with Sprint and GE Healthcare underscores
our commitment to leveraging advanced wireless applications and
technologies to help meet the needs of our tech-savvy physicians and
staff, while managing our growing wireless capabilities as efficiently
and effectively as possible."

This new deployment will result in a converged wireless ecosystem for
six hospital sites within the Methodist Healthcare. The deployment
includes:

--
GE CARESCAPE(TM) Enterprise Access, an integrated wireless platform that
enables critical patient data to be securely managed, coordinated and
distributed without the type of communications failures, interference
or interruptions that can be caused by un-integrated systems. Powered
by the Wire-It-Once architecture of MobileAccess, CARESCAPE Enterprise
Access provides hospitals with coverage for wireless patient
monitoring, multiple cellular providers, wireless LAN (WLAN) and
public safety radio, and other wireless services, over a single
infrastructure.

--
More than 800 Sprint wireless phones--carried by physicians, nurses and
staff throughout the hospital--will run on CARESCAPE Enterprise Access
to support better caregiver communication and productivity.

--
The ability for Methodist to further expand use of the GE wireless
patient monitoring system, which allows patients to be more mobile and
helps contribute to better outcomes. With CARESCAPE Enterprise Access,
Methodist can leverage its existing ApexPro(R) CH telemetry
system and expand with GE CARESCAPE T14 telemetry solution to
simultaneously monitor vital signs for more patients using the two
protected frequency bands.

"Wireless technologies have the potential to fundamentally change the
way clinicians and healthcare systems operate," said David Ataide, Vice
President and General Manager of GE Healthcare Monitoring Solutions and
Diagnostic Cardiology. "By collaborating with Sprint, we can provide
caregivers near-immediate, wireless access to critical patient
information, which supports our overarching goal of early health. We
applaud Methodist Healthcare's forward-looking commitment to driving
wireless monitoring solutions throughout its entire healthcare system."

By design, Methodist Healthcare's wireless infrastructure has the
flexibility and scale to meet healthcare mobility needs and compliance
demands, today and in the future. This solution enables clinicians to
extend the reach of patient care beyond the hospital walls and provides
visitors the ability to use personal wireless devices and access the
internet throughout the building. This new wireless infrastructure will
cover approximately 1.9 million square feet with voice and data services.

"Sprint and GE Healthcare have created an exceptional value proposition
for healthcare providers by collaborating to drive complete wireless
healthcare convergence in the hospital setting," said Mike Fitz, vice
president, Converged Solutions at Sprint. "Rather than taking a
piecemeal approach to building a wireless ecosystem, Methodist
Healthcare saw the value in working with two trusted industry-leading
companies. Sprint and GE Healthcare have created a wireless environment
that supports Methodist Healthcare's current communications needs while
also leaving room to expand for future innovation, including 4G and
WiMax capabilities."

Sprint is a leader in providing enhanced in-building and campus-wide
network consulting, integration and fixed mobile convergence solutions.
Sprint designs, deploys and maintains wireless networks and mobility
solutions that deliver the productivity and efficiency of voice and data
communications to virtually anywhere a business and its employees need
them. The Converged Network Solutions team offers 24/7 technical support
and manages all stages of the customer-deployment process, from the
initial requirements assessment through installation and deployment with
consultant-grade methods, procedures and tools. For more information
about Sprint CNS, please visit www.sprint.com/cns.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline
communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers,
businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for
developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including
two wireless networks serving more than 49 million customers at the end
of the fourth quarter 2008; industry-leading mobile data services;
instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a
global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and
services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in
medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics,
patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and
biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians
around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat
and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare
providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease,
neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the
future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on
earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease
prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17
billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating). Worldwide, GE
Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving
healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.
For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

About Methodist Healthcare

Methodist Healthcare is San Antonio's largest and most preferred health
care provider whose 24 facilities include eight acute care hospitals:
Methodist Children's Hospital of South Texas*, Methodist Hospital,
Methodist Heart Hospital*, Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital*,
Northeast Methodist Hospital*, Metropolitan Methodist Hospital*,
Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Hospital and Methodist Stone Oak Hospital.

These facilities offer a wide variety of health services including
transplant, cardiac care, oncology, behavioral health, emergency
medicine, bariatrics and women's and children's services.

For nine years straight, San Antonio consumers have rated Methodist
Healthcare as providing the highest quality care and image in the
market. The award was presented by the award by National Research
Corporation, a national leader in health care quality measurement and
improvement. This award is representative of the quality of care
received by all patients at each Methodist Healthcare facility in San
Antonio.

* A Methodist Hospital Facility

SOURCE: Sprint

Sprint 
Sukhi Sahni, 703-592-7779 
sukhi.sahni@sprint.com 
or 
GE Healthcare 
Autumn Latimore, 414-721-4013 
Autumn.Latimore@med.ge.com

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