PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, January 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- - CORTRAK Placement Skill Will Help Nurses Avoid Tube Placement Complications, Minimize X-Ray Exposure and Control Costs Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/), a world leader in healthcare and medical publishing and online solutions, today announced that Elsevier/Mosby Nursing Skills (http://www.nursingskills.com/), a Web-based skills reference and competency management tool offering nurses detailed information on more than 900 skills, has partnered with Wheeling, Illinois-based CORPAK MedSystems (http://www.corpakmedsystems.com/), a manufacturer of enteral/vascular access devices, to develop an online skill reference for placing feeding tubes using the CORTRAK(R) Enteral Access System. "Mosby's Nursing Skills is proud to provide online education and training support for a unique bedside feeding tube placement system that offers advantages in total procedure costs, as well as the accuracy and safety of nasogastric or nasojejunal placements," said Kathleen Cohen, RN , Elsevier's Executive Clinical Editor. "Through this first-ever partnership between Elsevier and a medical device manufacturer, nurses who deliver care in hospitals and surgery centers can learn and reinforce tube placement skills, meeting patients' needs for comfort and nurse management's demands for quality, accuracy, safety and efficiency. The CORTRAK Skill within Mosby's Nursing Skills offers a quick sheet with an abbreviated step-by-step placement procedure, checklist, animated demonstration, illustrations, extended text with the full step-by-step placement procedure and an interactive test that allows nurses to assess their own knowledge and skill. The CORTRAK Skill is currently available to all current Nursing Skills subscribers. Hospitals that already use the CORTRAK System will have access to the CORTRAK skill, even if they are not currently Mosby Nursing Skills subscribers. Mosby's Nursing Skills interactive functionality also offers subscribers the opportunity to customize skills for institution-specific protocols and procedures or link to nursing policies and procedures. As a result, hospitals can easily develop an internal protocol for placing feeding tubes using CORTRAK-either by using the protocol directly or modifying it to meet unique clinical goals. "The CORPAK Placement Skill available through Mosby's Nursing skills will help nurses achieve more efficient, faster tube placements," said Jill Lazar, CORPAK's Senior Product Manager. "Benefits include elimination of the x-ray costs associated with feeding tube placement confirmation and earlier enteral access, which reduces length of stay and infection rates." Blending a skills and procedures reference with a learning and competency management system, Mosby's Nursing Skills offers subscribers access to more than 800 nursing skills and procedures with detailed text, summary reviews, tests, checklists, illustrations and video/animation demonstrations. Nurse managers and educators can assign, track and manage skills and test nursing staff, while nurse management can post and manage announcements and alerts to communicate with staff. The CORTRAK Placement Procedure will appear in the American Association of Critical Care Procedure Guide scheduled for publication in May 2010. About Elsevier Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/) and Cell (http://www.cell.com/), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), Scopus (http://www.scopus.com/), Reaxys (http://www.reaxys.com/), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/) and Nursing Consult (http://www.nursingconsult.com/), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (http://www.scival.com/) and MEDai's Pinpoint Review (http://www.medai.com/), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively. A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange). About CORPAK MedSystems CORPAK MedSystems, founded in 1979 and headquartered in Wheeling, IL, manufactures and markets enteral/vascular access devices used primarily in the acute care setting; hospitals and surgery centers. Products are sold worldwide through a combination of exclusive distributors and a direct sales force. CORPAK manufactures a complete range of leading edge enteral access devices including, CORTRAK, a device that "traks" the feeding tube during the bedside placement procedure, CORPAK MedSystems is dedicated developing leading edge medical technology. For more information on new products and how they benefit both patients and clinicians, please visit http://www.corpakmedsystems.com/. Tom Reller Vice President, Corp. Relations, Elsevier +1-215-239-3508 DATASOURCE: Elsevier CONTACT: Tom Reller, Vice President, Corp. Relations, Elsevier, +1-215-239-3508,

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