With the rising costs of healthcare becoming an increasing concern, sometimes the incredible medical advances we have made get lost in the fray. Advancements in healthcare now enable more efficient patient care, which often translates into more accurate diagnosis, efficient monitoring, speedier recovery and, ultimately, reduced costs. The BirthNet obstetrical data management system from Spacelabs Medical, which uses an RS-422/485 card from Sealevel Systems, is one of those medical advancements.

The BirthNet System is an integrated software application that allows hospitals to display, store and report perinatal patient information. Created specifically for monitoring the labor and delivery environment, the software suite offers computerized charting, information management and captures and records information on both maternal patients and well newborns.

The BirthNet System network can monitor from three or four rooms in a smaller hospital and up to 48 rooms in a larger facility. BirthNet cycles through the 48 rooms every three seconds, sending, retrieving and recording data vital to the care of both the mother and baby.

The most important part of this system is the RS-485 interface that collects the information from each of the individual fetal monitors and transmits that data to the main terminal. Spacelabs Medical needed a high-quality, reliable RS-422/485 card in the polling server to facilitate the transfer of information, and the Sealevel 3082 was the card for the job.

The Sealevel 3082 provides the vehicle through which this information is gathered and displayed, allowing the nurse or physician to input the most up-to-date care giving information. For example, updated care instructions or results of a recent patient examination can be input from any BirthNet terminal in the hospital.

The BirthNet System will then update the proper patient's information on the printout in the correct room. In addition, the BirthNet System retains all of this information through patient discharge and will update the data upon re-admittance to build charts for the most accurate and complete patient information at any point in time.

"We knew Sealevel had a reputation for quality products with outstanding reliability," says Roy Hays, Vice President of Research and Development, Spacelabs Medical. "That's why we chose their RS-422/485 card for use in our BirthNet System when we designed it, and we've been very pleased with the performance of the card ever since."

"The Sealevel card is in the polling server, the most important part of the system, and we needed the most reliable product available," adds Hays. "In addition to the interface the Sealevel card facilitates, it can drive and pull data with up to 4000 feet of wire, and, when you're dealing with the accumulation of data from up to 48 separate hospital rooms, every three seconds, that ability was a major reason we needed the Sealevel card."

Utilized in Spacelabs obstetrical data management applications, the Sealevel 3082 card has been installed in more than 200 facilities. The majority of these locations are in the United States, but the system has also been installed in medical facilities around the world.

Sealevel Systems, founded in 1986, is a provider of communications and I/O solutions for multiple platforms including PCI Bus, ISA Bus, PC Card (PCMCIA) and PC/104. The product line includes multi-port RS-232 and RS-422/485 cards, high-speed sync/async adapters, digital/relay I/O boards, and Solid State Disk emulation. In addition to its products, the company provides related software, technical support and customer service, and offers customization capabilities to meet customer's unique application needs.

For more information contact Sealevel Systems by phone at (864) 843-4343, or by e-mail at sales@sealevel.com.

For more information about Spacelabs Medical, please see www.spacelabs.com or contact Karyn Beckley at Spacelabs, (425) 882-3753.

Simpler Solutions Fact Sheet:
BirthNet Obstetrical Data Management System

• Product: Sealevel Systems RS-422/485 card, Product #3082
• Client: Spacelabs Medical
• Application: Facilitate collection and recording of perinatal data from both mother and fetus
• Key Results: Ongoing retrieval and collection of maternal and fetal information, every three seconds, from patients in up to 96 separate hospital rooms