Community Health Systems Standardizes Critical Care Testing With AVL.

ROSWELL, Ga.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 5, 1999--

AVL to Exclusively Provide Blood Gas, Point of Care Analyzers and

Data Management for 44 Hospitals

Community Health Systems, a leading operator of acute care hospitals in non-urban communities in the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, has selected AVL Medical Instruments to be their sole source provider of blood gas instrumentation and related information management services for their 44 hospital network.

These hospitals range across 14 states and represent over 3500 acute care beds.

Stephen Baker, Director of Pharmacy, Laboratory and Cardio-Pulmonary for Community Health Systems, stated, "AVL was chosen as the sole source supplier for blood gas testing because of their proven track record and technology leadership. We felt that AVL was the best choice as a long term partner for CHS."

The AVL products selected by CHS include the AVL OMNI(R) Modular Analyzer with AutoQC(R), the AVL OPTI(tm) Critical Care Analyzer, and the DatacareABG(tm) data management system.

"We are pleased that CHS chose AVL as a corporate partner," said AVL President and CEO Alfred Marek. "AVL offers blood gas and data management systems which provide solutions for the main laboratory and point of care settings. This is important for large integrated systems like CHS, where the needs of each individual hospital might be quite different."

Community Health Systems Inc., based in Brentwood, Tennessee offers a broad range of inpatient medical and surgical services, outpatient treatment and skilled nursing care. The company's strategy is to capture incremental market share by adding services in response to local demand and thereby slowing the out-migration to urban medical centers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For over 30 years, AVL has been leading the industry in the development, manufacture and marketing of AVL and private-label electrolyte analyzers and sensor technology for clinical laboratory markets worldwide. Continually growing as a global leader in critical care testing, the current AVL product line offers flexible solutions including both benchtop and point-of-care devices as well as integrated data management. The recent agreement with Roche Diagnostics to provide an integrated critical care testing platform, and the acquisition of the proven data management leader, Laboratory Data Systems, will serve to strengthen this position.

Today, the AVL Medical Division represents 40 percent of AVL's sales volume, with over 15,000 blood gas analyzers placed worldwide. AVL enjoys 30 percent market share of the international market and in some countries, as high as 80 percent. AVL has over 1100 patents. The U.S. headquarters is in Roswell, Georgia. www.avlmed.com

Customer inquiries should be directed to AVL Medical Instruments at 1-800-421-4646.