Intelligent Hospital Systems Withdraws False Claims about Health Robotics

Jan. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- Bozen, Sud-Tirol, Italy – January 4th, 2013.

Health Robotics reported today that Intelligent Hospital Systems/RIVA twice had to withdraw from its own website their prior false statements about Palomar Medical Center and Cottage Health System supposedly “de-installing and rejecting i.v.STATION”, directly as a result to Palomar and Cottage rebukes of IHS’ claims.

Coinciding with ASHP on Las Vegas, IHS/RIVA launched an attack on Health Robotics by publishing an undated news release to which Health Robotics promptly responded to: http://www.health-robotics.com/en/downloads/ (http://www.health-robotics.com/en/about-health-robotics/press-releases/)

After claiming that Palomar Medical Center had supposedly “de-installed i.v.STATION” in favor of RIVA, Health Robotics’ issued the above press release disputing IHS/RIVA’s claims and contacted Palomar Medical Center’s General Counsel. IHS/RIVA was subsequently forced by Palomar Medical Center (its own customer) to immediately withdraw its prior press release from its own website.

To make matters worse, IHS/RIVA then proceeded inexplicably [but acknowledging the fiction of its prior claims] to assert (again on an undated and un-authored news release) that another American hospital [this time Cottage Health System] supposedly “had rejected i.v.STATION” in favor of RIVA. Despite the holiday period, Health Robotics contacted Cottage Health System’s COO Mr. Steven Fellows, who forced IHS/RIVA to withdraw these additional fabrications. Interested parties may contact Mr. Fellows at: sfellows@sbch.org in order to verify the above.

Gaspar DeViedma, Health Robotics’ Executive Vice President and Board Member, stated: “There shouldn’t be an ounce of credibility left with Health-System Pharmacists about any future statements made by IHS/RIVA as a direct result of these events. While IHS/RIVA’s news withdrawals from its website cannot “put the genie back in the bottle”, Health Robotics will take appropriate and measured actions against IHS, and continue to inform the general public about IHS/RIVA’s baseless attacks on Health Robotics and its market-leading products.”

Apparently IHS/RIVA is hell bent in making wrongful accusations about Health Robotics while at the same time failing to disclose their own customer cancellations such as for example Jackson Heath System [Florida, 2008] or Banner Good Samaritan [Arizona, 2007] announced by IHS/RIVA in its own web site. It is not uncommon for Health-Systems to sometimes cancel contracts for reasons not necessarily related to vendor’s performance, as was the case with McKesson’s customers for example. Health Robotics has made no secret of the fact that, prior to directly entering the USA market in April 2011, it faced numerous issues in connection with prior distributors in the USA (including McKesson), which caused the company to directly enter the USA market as a request from its customers, enjoying ever since the unanimous support of its USA-based customers.

Mr. DeViedma concluded: “In my opinion, IHS/RIVA should address genuine Health System Pharmacists’ concerns about their own arcane product’s high price, outdated footprint, lack of speed, and long ROI, rather than trying to invent stories designed to spin and demonize Health Robotics for developing a newer, redundant-proof, improved, much less expensive, and faster second generation technology.”

About Health Robotics:

Founded in 2006 and now reaching well over 80% global market share, Health Robotics is the undisputed leading supplier of life-critical intravenous medication Robots, providing over 300 hospital installations in 5 continents with robotics-based technology and fully integrated clinical software automation solutions. Health Robotics’ second generation solutions [i.v.STATION, i.v.SOFT, and i.v.STATION ONCO] have been found [through scientific and peer-reviewed studies1,2] to greatly contribute to ease hospitals’ growing pressures to improve patient safety[1] (http://#_ftn1), increase throughput and contain costs1. Through the effective and efficient production of sterile, accurate, tamper-evident and ready-to-administer IVs, Health Robotics’ medical devices and integrated workflow solutions help hospitals eliminate life-threatening drug1 and diluent1 exchange errors, improve drug potency[2] (http://#_ftn2), decrease other medical mistakes and sterility risks, work more efficiently1, reduce waste and controlled substances’ diversion, and diminish the gap between rising patient volume/acuity and scarce medical, nursing, and pharmacy staff.

For additional information, please contact:
perez@health-robotics.com
Phone +1.786.417.1251

1. Impact of Robotic Antineoplastic Preparation on Safety, Workflow, Costs. Seger, Churchill, Keohane, Belisle, Wong, Sylvester, Chesnick, Burdick, Wien, Cotugno, Bates, and Rothschild. Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and Harvard Medical School. Journal of Oncology Practice, Nov. 2012, Volume 8, number 6.

2. Validation of an automated method for compounding monoclonal antibody patient doses: case studies of Avastin®, Remicade®, and Herceptin®. Peters, Capelle, Arvinte, van de Garde. St. Antonius Hospital. mAbs January 2013, Volume 5, Issue 1.