Company-wide RFID Technology Installation is Completed by SRI/Surgical Express, Inc.

TAMPA, Fla. -- SRI/Surgical Express, Inc. (SRI), a leading provider of products and services supporting the healthcare industry, today announced the successful implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in all 10 of its processing facilities across the United States.

SRI will install RFID chips in more than 1 million of its reusable surgical gowns and drapes in this implementation. SRI believes that this is the first full integration of RFID technology into Class II medical devices and among the largest uses to date of "multi-read" applications of RFID technology.

RFID technology is a powerful method for identifying and tracking a wide range of objects in diverse environments based on the use of a small tag (or "transponder") that stores a unique code, together with additional information that the user may specify. A "reader" is used both to transmit a signal to a tag and retrieve stored information from it; no contact or line-of-sight is required, and long operating ranges are possible. SRI incorporated "multi-read" RFID tags into its surgical gowns and drapes, replacing its use of labor-intensive bar code scanning to track product usage.

"The implementation of RFID technology is an important event for our company and our customers," said Joseph A. Largey, CEO of SRI/Surgical Express, Inc. "The immediate benefit for SRI is improved inventory control, better monitoring of quality and a productivity enhancement of 5 percent over our results with bar code scanning. As we further integrate RFID technology into our processes, SRI expects to virtually eliminate inaccurate shipments of customer orders from our plants. We are proud to have just completed this large RFID implementation and for being 'ahead of the curve' with this exciting technology."

SRI/Surgical Express, Inc. provides central processing and supply chain management services to hospitals and surgery centers across the United States. SRI helps healthcare providers balance their need for quality, safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness with a unique combination of high-quality reusable and disposable surgical products, outsourced instrument processing services and the industry's most comprehensive case cart management system. The company operates from 10 processing facilities, one disposable pack assembly facility and five service centers located throughout the United States.

Source: SRI