Agfa HealthCare announced that the Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis (ADRZ) in Goes has become the first hospital in the Netherlands to install its Enterprise Imaging for Radiology solution. ADRZ is a general care hospital with four sites, 170 medical specialists and 2300 employees providing healthcare services in the Zeeland region of the Netherlands. The hospital's transition went very smoothly, and the new solution is now up and running.
A single, sophisticated platform
As existing customer of Agfa HealthCare, ADRZ decided to transition its existing picture archiving and communication system (PACS) to the Enterprise Imaging for Radiology platform. Agfa HealthCare's Enterprise Imaging for Radiology includes imaging management, reporting, advanced image processing and integration of clinical information, all in one sophisticated platform. This completely unified imaging solution offers a care-centric workflow that is standards-based, improves interoperability and enables a comprehensive patient health record across departments within a single facility or between multiple facilities. It offers clinicians a single point of access to patient information from different sources, allowing radiologists to quickly access a patient's complete file, generate a report and distribute it, all during one session, even from a remote location.
The platform also includes the XERO Viewer, which is seamlessly integrated into the hospital's third-party electronic patient record (EPR). The Viewer provides cross-specialty image 'anywhere, anytime' access to images from any source, from within a single web viewer, so that caregivers can see the patient's entire imaging story.
Careful preparation leads to 1-day switch-over
A team of some 20 people from the hospital's radiology and ICT departments and from Agfa HealthCare collaborated closely to achieve the transition to Enterprise Imaging for Radiology. The extensive preparations included migrating around 1.8 million studies, building a complete infrastructure, training users, performing test runs, and more.
This careful work led up to November 28, when the existing system was switched off and Enterprise Imaging for Radiology switched on. The approximately 60 modalities and workstations were connected to the Enterprise Imaging for Radiology and tested. The hospital next began using the Enterprise Imaging for Radiology solution intensively, with everything moving smoothly.
Enhanced productivity and communication
The benefits are already being felt throughout the hospital: the radiologists appreciate the hanging protocols that enhance their productivity, as well as the sectional reporting that makes creating reports easier and more standardized. The improved workflow helps balance the workload between radiologists, while decreasing waiting time for patients. The system is also simple for end users, with a straightforward interface that requires limited training. Critically, communication with clinicians is improved as well.
Administration of the system is easy: configuration, management and maintenance controls are all available through a single entry point, using a streamlined, uncluttered and intuitive administrator interface.
"Enterprise Imaging is a single, 64-bit platform, which made migration quick: implementation took only one day, supported by thorough advance preparation," comments Rene Stenvert of Agfa HealthCare. "It required a lot of team work, but we can already conclude that the implementation of the first Enterprise Imaging for Radiology in the Netherlands was a huge success."
"The switch-over went very well, and almost all of the issues that occurred were solved the same day," says Brian Willems, project manager and key user of the solution at ADRZ. "By carefully following the elaborate plan, the total downtime was only about 45 minutes. The collaboration with Agfa HealthCare, during the preparations and the switch-over, was excellent."
Related news articles:
- Agfa HealthCare's Profile
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,865 million euro in 2013.
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading global provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions. The company has nearly a century of healthcare experience and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Today Agfa HealthCare designs, develops and delivers state-of-the-art systems for capturing, managing and processing diagnostic images and clinical/administrative information for hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as contrast media solutions to enable effective medical imaging results. The company has sales offices and agents in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2013 were 1,160 million euro.