SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 18, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Patient Safety Technologies, Inc.'s (AMEX:PST) wholly owned subsidiary SurgiCount Medical, Inc. announced today the execution of an agreement with A Plus International, Inc. to supply SurgiCount with data matrix tagged, bulk and sterile sponges for use with SurgiCount's Safety-Sponge(tm), retained sponge incident reducing system. The agreement is mutually exclusive and has a term of 8 years with options to renew. Services to be provided by A Plus include manufacturing, packaging, sterilization, logistics and all related quality and regulatory compliance.
Founded in 1988, A Plus is a global leader in the manufacture of surgical dressings, patient drapes and surgical gowns that provides OEM support to the largest healthcare manufacturers and distributors in the world. A Plus employs over 6,000 people in seven factories throughout China and maintains over 200,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space in the U.S. Bill Adams, their U.S.-based Director of Marketing, possesses over 25 years of experience in the supply of surgical dressings and has overseen several successful new product roll-outs including prepackaged surgical kits.
"A Plus' commitment to this effort indicates their recognition of the significant time, cost and life saving benefits associated with the streamlining of the sponge counting process," commented Milton "Todd" Ault, III, PST's Chairman and CEO. "With the assurance of a reliable product supply, we can now focus our efforts further on product optimization, marketing and development of distribution relationships, all activities in which A Plus will play a central role."
"We feel that the Safety-Sponge is the right product at a time where medical errors are increasingly identified as being a leading cause of death and preventable healthcare cost," stated Bill Adams. "The incremental cost of this new system is far outweighed by the hospital's savings in terms of time saved in the O.R., medical and litigation costs associated with retained sponge incidents and risk management."
Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. ("PST") is a developer, manufacturer and content provider of patient safety products and services, working toward becoming the leader in the patient safety sector. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, PST is assembling a world-class Advisory Board of leading patient safety experts. The company is concentrating on surgical safety to support its newly acquired subsidiary, SurgiCount Medical, Inc., a developer of patient safety devices. SurgiCount features the Safety-Sponge(tm) System, which helps in reducing the number of retained sponges and towels in patients during surgical procedures and allows for faster and more accurate counting of surgical sponges. For more information on Patient Safety Technologies, Inc., please contact the company directly at (310) 752-1416, or by email at info@patientsafetytechnologies.com or www.patientsafetytechnologies.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such because the context of the statement will include words such as Patient Safety Technologies "expects," "should," "believes," "anticipates" or words of similar import. Stockholders, potential investors and other readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are predictions based only on current information and expectations that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future events or results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by the forward-looking statements. Certain of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Patient Safety Technologies filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Patient Safety Technologies annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. These forward-looking statements are only made as of the date of this press release and Patient Safety Technologies does not undertake any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.