FREDERICKSBURG, VA – Mary Washington Hospital, a 442-bed regional facility south of the nation's capital, intends to implement new software to automatically track patients and assets in its emergency department.

Patient Care Technology Systems, a Mission Viejo, Calif-based subsidiary of Consulier Engineering, Inc will provide the new technology - its Amelior EDTracker product - to the hospital.

PCTS officials say the software uses ultrasound locating from Sonitor Technologies and will be integrated with an upgraded release of the PCTS Amelior ED documentation system. Mary Washington Hospital has employed the documentation system for clinical charting and to manage patient flow in its emergency department since 2002.

In the past six years, visits to MWH's emergency department have risen significantly. In 2007, the department treated more than 100,000 patients, making it one of the busiest departments in Virginia.

In its initial year since deploying Amelior ED, hospital officials said emergency department expenses for transcription services were reduced by more than half a million dollars as a result of more than a 90 percent decrease in dictation use.