Transfusion Management Services, Inc. Press Release.

Health Editors/Medical Writers

LAKE BLUFF, Ill.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 8, 2002

Transfusion Management Services, Inc. (TxMS) will facilitate peripheral blood stem cell processing as an addendum to its three year management services contract with Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation, (BMHCC) Memphis, TN.

TxMS is currently engaged in a three-year management services contract with BMHCC for the development and management of a new consolidated transfusion service. Under this contract, TxMS assumed management of the operations of the transfusion services for the BMHCC hospitals in the Memphis metropolitan area.

Originally retained to develop and manage a new consolidated and centralized transfusion service, TxMS will facilitate stem cell processing services to enable Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis to establish a clinical program for oncology patients who will benefit by a treatment regimen of high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant.

Currently, Baptist Memphis hospital only performs autologous stem cell transplants in which stem cells are collected from the patients blood system and then prepared for reinfusion to the patient following chemotherapy treatment. The procedure is designed to assist in the patient's recovery following high-dose chemotherapy treatment.

In an addendum to its management services contract, TxMS will now assist BMHCC to construct the most cost effective program to provide stem cell transplant services for its patients. Leveraging existing infrastructure within the transfusion service and outsourcing the processing of stem cells to TxMS, BMHCC has created a program to support oncologists and the patients they admit to BMHCC more cost effectively than had they developed a complete stem cell processing laboratory.

"We are committed to providing a full complement of medical services to support physicians and their patients at our facilities. With TxMS's help we created a stem cell transplant program to meet the needs of oncologists and their patients more quickly and economically," says Jerry Brantley, Vice President of Baptist Memorial Health Care and COO of the Memphis metropolitan hospitals.

This is TxMS's first contract for stem cell processing. "We are pleased that BMHCC contracted with us to provide stem cell processing support," stated Dennis Fallen, President/CEO of TxMS. "A key objective of our company is to broaden the services we provide to our clients. We see stem cell processing services as a growing component of the services we offer as the use of stem cell transplant in treatment of oncology patients continues to expand."

Transfusion Management Services, Inc. a private corporation headquartered in suburban Chicago, IL, and founded in 1999 by Dennis M. Smith, Jr. MD and Dennis K. Fallen provides management services to assist hospitals deliver cost effective and efficient blood bank and transfusion services.

One of the largest not-for-profit health systems in the United States, Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation is an integrated health care delivery system offering a full continuum of care to communities throughout the Mid-South. Baptist employs approximately 13,000 people and, in 2000, admitted approximately 100,000 patients and is the only Memphis-based provider that spans three states. Mid-Southerners have chosen Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis, the system's flagship hospital, as their most preferred hospital for the past six years in a row, according to a National Research Corp. independent survey.