DJO receives ACHC approval

DJO (San Diego), a provider of products and services for musculoskeletal and vascular health, said reported receiving accreditation status by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC; Raleigh, North Carolina). ACHC, a private, not-for-profit corporation, which is certified to ISO 9001 and 2000 standards, was developed by home care and community-based providers to help companies improve business operations and patient care. Tom Cesar, president of ACHC, said, “The survey process leads organizations to examine internal policies and practices continually to clarify strengths and improve weaknesses.”

Accreditation is a voluntary activity where healthcare organizations submit to peer review of their internal policies, processes and patient care delivery against national standards.

In order to participate in the Medicare Competitive Bidding Program, suppliers must meet quality standards and be accredited by a CMS-approved accreditation organization, such as ACHC.

RehabCare opens new hospital

RehabCare Group (St. Louis) reported the opening of Central Texas Rehabilitation Hospital (Austin, Texas), beginning patient admissions this month. The hospital marks the completion of the first phase of a joint venture project with The Seton Family of Hospitals and represents RehabCare’s tenth hospital within its freestanding hospitals division.

“This is a milestone achievement for our freestanding hospital operations in a relatively short period of time,” said John Short, RehabCare president/CEO.

RehabCare formed its newest division in 2005 with the acquisition of MeadowBrook Healthcare, which operated physical rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) in Florida, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas. Today, the company owns or operates seven rehabilitation hospitals and three LTACHs in five states (includes Indiana). Five more hospitals are in various stages of planning and construction, all of which are being developed in partnership with local acute care providers.

RehabCare provides management for the daily operations of Central Texas Rehabilitation Hospital while Seton supplies ancillary and support services.

Crimson Life issued ISO 14071

Crimson Life Sciences (Boston), a division of TransPerfect Translations, reported that it has received the world’s first ISO 14971 risk management system registration certificate for a provider of translation services for medical device labeling and documentation from Underwriters Laboratories (UL; Northbrook, Illinois), a provider of product safety testing, certification and management system registrations.

“Medical device labeling must convey to users critical safety information about the product while taking into account the language of both the user and the device documentation,” said Steve McRoberts, principal engineer, medical regulatory and proprietary compliance of UL International. “Crimson Life Sciences is to be applauded for attaining this first-ever ISO 14971 registration for a risk management system capable of mitigating safety issues inherent to translation of medical device literature -- an issue of great importance to the global medical community.”

Crimson Life provides expertise in translation and labeling risk management.

UL is a not-for-profit product safety certification organization.

Novadaq restates its financials

Novadaq Technologies (Toronto) said that it has filed restated unaudited interim financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2007 with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The restatement has no impact on previously reported net income, earnings per share, revenue, cash, total assets, or shareholder’s equity and only relates to the accounting treatment, in the company’s consolidated statement of cash flows of the assets acquired from Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California) relating to the exclusive distribution rights to PLC Medical System’s (Franklin, Massachusetts) Heart Laser System for transmyocardial revascularization in the U.S.

Novadaq has restated the consolidated statement of cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2007, to reclassify the acquisition of inventory and assumption of accounts payable related to the Edwards TMR business as investing activities, rather than non-cash working capital changes relating to operations. In addition, certain non-cash financing and investing activities also related to the acquisition of the Edwards TMR business have been removed from the consolidated statement of cash flows for such period and disclosed as non-cash financing and investing activities in Note 7 to the unaudited interim financial statements for the period.

Novadaq Technologies makes medical imaging systems and real-time image-guided therapies for use in the operating room.