Extension of relationship with Agfa HealthCare will consolidate imaging in 21 hospitals and more than 150 clinics
Mortsel, Belgium/Greenville, USA - 24 November, 2008 - 16.00 CET/10:00 EST
(RSNA Booth #4800) Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, announced today that Intermountain Healthcare of Salt Lake City, Utah will integrate imaging from all of its hospitals and clinics using Agfa's IMPAX® 6.3 Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS). An IMPAX customer since 1999, Intermountain renewed its commitment to Agfa HealthCare with a multi-year contract signed in September.
With 21 hospital facilities, more than 150 clinics, and more than 2,000 referring physicians, Intermountain serves the medical needs of Utah and southeastern Idaho. The organization annually performs more than 1.2 million radiology studies.
Intermountain's current Agfa HealthCare imaging system configures five PACS servers to serve five separate geographic regions, each with multiple hospitals and clinics. The newly expanded solution will provide more effective continuity of care, centralizing the PACS to serve the entire enterprise and consolidating images from facilities in all of its regions in a single database with a full business continuity solution. The centralized Agfa HealthCare database will provide more than 100 radiologists with accessible image reading from anywhere in the enterprise, and will be integrated with existing Hospital Information System (HIS) and Radiology Information System (RIS) and storage infrastructure solutions. The system has dual redundant cores located in different locations to help protect business continuity.
Integrating multiple imaging systems into a single, centralized enterprise PACS will enable significant clinical workflow improvements, facilitating patient-centric care. "At any Intermountain location, our radiologists will be able review patient images and data and complete patient studies, regardless of where the patient was examined," says Dr. Keith White, pediatric radiologist and physician informatics representative. "By eliminating artificial geographic boundaries, we can increase the efficiency of our radiologists."
A nonprofit health system, Intermountain was recently ranked among the nation's Most Wired organizations by Hospitals & Health Networks for the ninth time in 10 years. "Agfa HealthCare's record of developing and advancing healthcare technology dovetails neatly with Intermountain Healthcare's ongoing commitment to using state-of-the-art healthcare information technology to promote clinical excellence and improve patient care," says Deanna Welch, Intermountain's administrative director of imaging services. "Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX helps advance our mission by providing our physicians with more efficient clinical workflow and more convenient access to patient images and information."
Intermountain's implementation of IMPAX 6.3 has already begun. As part of the agreement, Agfa HealthCare and Intermountain will work together to migrate patient images and data from the five existing PACS systems to the new centralized PACS.
Agfa HealthCare invites you to visit its booth at RSNA 2008 (South Building, Hall A, #4800) to discover its leading solutions and Works in Progress. The exhibition will be held in Chicago from November 30th until December 5th. For more information, visit our virtual booth: http://www.agfa.com/rsna2008/.
About Intermountain Healthcare
Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based system of nonprofit hospitals, clinics, and health services. With a commitment to provide excellent medical care to patients from our region regardless of their ability to pay, Intermountain's physicians, nurses, and other caregivers treat patients in Utah and southeastern Idaho. Primary Children's Medical Center, Intermountain Medical Center, McKay-Dee Hospital Center, LDS Hospital, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and Dixie Regional Medical Center are part of Intermountain's family of 21 hospitals.
