San Diego Business Watch

By Debbie Sklar | August 25, 2010

The last few weeks of summer have been heating up with temperatures climbing, but that hasn’t stalled businesses from coming and going this week in San Diego.

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Sapphire Tech Shines

Expanding its geographic footprint, Sapphire Technologies has opened a new office at 8880 Rio San Diego Dr. Suite 1070 in San Diego. The provider of IT staffing solutions, Sapphire’s new regional branch will provide local clients and national accounts support in finding the IT talent they need to help keep their businesses running smoothly. Headed by Branch Manager Charity Cescolini, the office officially opened its doors on Aug.1.

“We anticipate great success from the San Diego office,” said Regional Manager Dan Cordero. “The area is booming with a wide array of businesses in industries ranging from Defense, R&D, manufacturing and tourism. We already have established relationships with key clients in the region and will work to expand upon these while penetrating new accounts as well.”

Since 1984, Sapphire has helped connect top talent with top companies around the globe or around the corner. Ranked among the top 10 largest IT staffing companies in the United States, Sapphire provides customized solutions for public and private corporations.

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Awarepoint Corp.

Awarepoint Corp., a provider of enterprise networked awareness solutions and Real-time Location System (RTLS) applications for hospitals have announced a big music video contest called The Big RTLS Music video Contest. Open to all hospital staff in the United States to submit entries, the contest is based around the significant challenge of the timely and reliable location of costly medical equipment.  Given the increased need for knowing the location, status and movement of equipment in hospitals and the challenges this presents to hospital staff that are responsible for patient care, Awarepoint is hoping to give contestants a stronger voice in this universal hospital challenge — assuring the right equipment, in the right place, at the right time.

Along with the Laryngospams, a group of registered nurse anesthetists who produce healthcare-themed music, Valerie Fritz, Senior Vice President of Awarepoint, created “Now We Find More,” a song parody using the tune, ‘Satisfaction©’ by the Rolling Stones®.

“I based the lyrics on time-sensitive medical equipment issues in hospitals — environments which are dynamic and operationally challenging where people and equipment are constantly on the move.  Often times, critical equipment isn’t where it’s supposed to be, which an inconvenience becomes for the hard-working clinicians who care for patients.  The song also addresses the significant financial burden this places on hospital managers — who often rent or over-purchase equipment to assure adequate supply,” Fritz said.  “This contest is an opportunity to engage more hospitals in the hopes of using RTLS to shift this paradigm.”

Awarepoint’s Real-time Awareness Solution provides nurses, technicians and support staff with actionable information to help increase equipment utilization, impact rental reduction, and reduce lost or misplaced equipment. Without an RTLS solution, the inability to find critical assets in a timely manner can adversely affect patient care, clinical outcomes, staff productivity and job satisfaction.

In addition to being featured on Awarepoint’s YouTube channel and The AwarePoint Blog winners of the Big RTLS Music Video Contest will receive the following prizes:

• First Place: $2,500 to their hospital’s department or the hospital’s charity of choice and an iPad® 16GB/3G/WiFi
• Second Place: $1,000  to their hospital’s department or the hospital’s charity of choice and an iPad 16GB/WiFi
• Honorable Mention: An iTouch® 8GB

To get hospitals inspired during the contest period, The Awarepoint Blog will continue to post some of the best hospital music video spots we find.

The contest deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 15, 2011 and all music video entries, in the form of a high resolution video file or DVD, can be sent to jlong@awarepoint.com, or submitted via mail to Awarepoint Video Contest, 600 West Broadway, Suite 250, San Diego, 92101.  Visit http://www.awarepoint.com/musicvideocontest.html to obtain a copy of the lyrics and MP3 song, or for additional contest rules.

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MedNeutral

MedNeutral, a subsidiary of Brahma Holdings, LLC based in San Diego, is offering law firms and claim administrators an efficient means to optimize medical records associated with the Gulf Oil spill.  MedNeutral’s Medical RecordsOptimization™ solutions convert medical information into structured data to improve efficiency, accuracy and consistency in the review of medical records, thereby expediting the valuation and payment of claims.

MedNeutral performs triage and converts medical records into reports that are chronologically organized, indexed and summarized by medically trained professionals. The solutions enhance the services of lawyers, paralegals and claim processors by enabling them to more quickly understand and review relevant medical facts and analyze the legitimacy and valuation of a claim.

Separating legitimate claims from questionable claims and valuing the legitimate claims when scores of claims are being filed requires a scalable solution. Today’s system of handling the voluminous, disjointed records from various sources is time consuming, inefficient and unstructured, resulting in high costs and inconsistent results.

“The next phase in the Gulf Oil spill will be the accumulation and processing of medical records for personal injury claims,” reported Joe E. Russell, General Counsel for MedNeutral.  “Our solutions can be an invaluable tool to optimize medical records and aid in the expeditious processing of claims which will benefit all the parties.”

“While several personal injury and class actions have been initiated, numerous additional claims will be filed, including claims related to the use of the dispersants in the Gulf,” he added.  “The impact from the dispersants is still being analyzed and the medical records will help identify the causation of any injuries.”

MedNeutral was founded by lawyers on the insight that vast amounts of information relevant to the analysis, valuation and resolution of litigation are locked in medical records.  It has processed millions of pages of medical records for customers, including one of the largest Property and Casualty insurance companies in the US.

MedNeutral’s range of solutions organizes and indexes medical records, summarizes each claim and provides abstracts of the medical records.  The processed reports provide medical context as well as identifies pre-existing conditions and missing records.  It also highlights key factors for the reviewer such as proximate cause, alternate causation and other factors which may impact valuation.  The results can be integrated into a settlement matrix for expedited claim resolution.

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Quality Office Furniture for Sale

Shore Total Office Furniture has founded SanDiegoUsedOfficeFurniture.com, a simple way to shop for used office furniture in San Diego. The retailer has created the new Web site to serve the San Diego business community and make shopping for used office furniture easier.

The site is easier to navigate for customers who want to see the largest selection of used office furniture in Southern California. The new ecommerce hub is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shore Total Office Furniture, which has been serving the San Diego business community with a friendly and knowledgeable staff since 1970.

The brands that are featured on SanDiegoUsedOfficeFurniture.com are proven to perform exceptionally well and are in good to great condition at about half the cost of new items.

For more information about the web site serving San Diego businesses, visit www.sandiegousedofficefurniture.com.

Photos courtesy of blisschen and southerntabitha via flickr and Groentepakket via wikimedia