PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- With clinical equipment spending accounting for a significant portion of hospital revenue, Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) today opened a new Healthcare Technology & Innovation Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, to drive more efficient ways for hospitals to manage clinical equipment assets. The company, a $14 billion global provider of food, facilities management and uniforms services, is also the largest independent provider of diagnostic and imaging services in North America.

The new Center strengthens Aramark's position to provide versatile and cost effective hospital clinical equipment management programs by increasing its research and development expertise, centralizing training and engineering capabilities, and integrating Aramark's clinical equipment parts sourcing organization into a single center of excellence.

"Innovation is a vital cultural and competitive strength across Aramark and we are focused on fostering an environment of dreaming and doing among our engineers and technicians," said Victor Crawford, COO of Aramark's Healthcare Sector. "The Aramark Technology & Innovation Center brings together all of our subject matter expertise – from supply chain to research and development to bolster our capabilities to plan and manage customized programs that optimize our hospital partners' investment in clinical equipment assets."

Aramark's new state-of-the-art 105,000 square foot Technology & Innovation Center employs more than 140 people and features:

• Simulated patient care suites with more than 32 active Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT) Scan, Catheterization laboratory, and X-Ray systems. These suites provide the ability for hands-on technical training and quality assurance testing. They're designed so that new systems from any manufacturer can be quickly introduced. Engineers now have greater ability to keep pace with technical advancement and train on specific systems in Aramark's customer hospitals, regardless of the equipment manufacturer.
• The integration of Aramark's wholly owned ReMedPar organization, a leading provider of diagnostic and imaging parts and components. The company's more than $40 million parts inventory is now housed in a 90,000 square foot facility, with the latest in quality control design-including a near clean room environment for sensitive electronic components.
• A focused group of highly skilled testing and software engineers that drive research and development to enhance Aramark's diagnostic and repair capabilities on complex electronic systems.
• Improved remote monitoring capabilities that enable engineers at the Center to digitally interface with specific equipment located within Aramark's client locations to troubleshoot and correct issues in real time, often before the hospital realizes a problem.
• A fully staffed 24x7 customer service center, with live technical and part ordering support, to quickly address client needs so that equipment critical to patient care gets back in use faster.

"Innovation comes in many shapes and sizes and when clinical equipment in hospitals is not operable, it impacts patient care," Crawford added.  "Aramark's aim is to extend our mission to enrich and nourish lives by leveraging the resources of this Technology & Innovation Center across our Healthcare Sector to help hospitals improve patient, physician and nurse satisfaction."

In its Healthcare Sector, Aramark has two operating groups, one provides patient and retail dining and facility solutions; and the other provides healthcare technology management. Collectively, these groups employ or manage more than 50,000 people and help more than 1,000 North American healthcare organizations focus on their core missions to deliver patient care.

To help drive efficiencies, Aramark's hospital partners often count on the company to provide a full range of solutions from food to facilities to healthcare technology management. With a great deal of synergy across Aramark's Healthcare Sector, the Technology & Innovation Center is a resource that will benefit its hospital partners across the board.

Through its healthcare technologies management group, Aramark delivers integrated biomedical and diagnostic imaging service, as well as workforce and asset management, collaborative field operations and high-touch customer service. With more than 30 years of experience and approximately 1,600 biomedical technicians, engineers, and staff, the company manages more than 1.7 million pieces of equipment at more than 500 healthcare organizations in more than 1,100 locations.

About Aramark

Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) is in the customer service business across food, facilities and uniforms, wherever people work, learn, recover and play. United by a passion to serve, our more than 270,000 employees deliver experiences that enrich and nourish the lives of millions of people in 22 countries around the world every day. Aramark is recognized among the Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE and the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. Learn more at www.aramark.com or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Contact: Chris Collom
(215)-238-3593
Collom-chris@aramark.com

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SOURCE Aramark