Agfa HealthCare announces today that the Managing Board of the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, one of the three largest university hospitals in Germany, awarded Agfa HealthCare the contract for the cross-campus introduction of its ORBIS(TM) Hospital Information System (HIS), with an integrated Radiology Information System (RIS) and IMPAX(TM) Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The contract has already gone into effect. ORBIS has already been deployed in over 750 institutions across continental Europe with more than 450,000 daily users.
The changeover to ORBIS and IMPAX will allow the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein to improve its processes in Patient Care (physicians, nursing staff), Patient Administration (admissions, billing), and Research and Teaching. Agfa HealthCare will introduce a unified patient administration and billing solution in the early stages, as well as the first stage of the Hospital Workplace System and the Radiology Information System with PACS.
The decision in favor of Agfa HealthCare was preceded by a preparatory period lasting more than two and a half years. The invitation to bid for this major IT project, whose sponsors include the German Research Federation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), was issued throughout Europe in September 2006.
"We were convinced that Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS HIS and IMPAX RIS/PACS were the ideal end-to-end solutions for our needs - with everything from a single source. The product availability, the innovative and user-friendly NICE interface, and the in-depth experience of Agfa HealthCare were important elements taken into consideration," stated Günter Zwilling, Commercial Director of the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein. "Furthermore, Agfa HealthCare is recognized for its capabilities surrounding the management of similar large-scale European IT projects. With the introduction of cutting edge technological solutions such as ORBIS, we at the Schleswig-Holstein University Clinic are now building our bridge towards networked healthcare."
The University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, employing 10,000 staff members, counts 2400 beds across all its locations and has more than 240,000 outpatients and some 100,000 in-patients annually. Phase-out of the existing solutions and their replacement by ORBIS at both locations (Kiel and Lübeck) of the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, will take place in five stages and have already been launched.
"The decision reached by the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein is a further endorsement of our holistic approach to information technology in the healthcare sector and underscores the trust which is placed in our ability to successfully undertake major IT projects on an international scale", states Marko Schmitz, Head of Sales HIS/LIS at Agfa HealthCare. ""We are looking forward to collaborating closely with yet another German university hospital which is relying on Agfa HealthCare's market-leading solutions to gear it up for the national and Europe-wide competition in the healthcare sector."
Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS Hospital Information System is already in operation in a number of university hospitals and large polyclinics in Germany. At present Agfa HealthCare has references from university hospitals in Bonn, Cologne, Giessen and Marburg, Münster, Frankfurt and Dresden. This year, the University Clinic in Halle has also opted for the Agfa HealthCare Hospital Information System. Altogether, Agfa HealthCare has undertaken more than 250 IMPAX and over 210 ORBIS RIS installations in the German-speaking countries in Europe.
About the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein
With around 2,400 beds, more than 240,000 outpatients and some 100,000 inpatients (fully/partly), the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein (UK S-H) is one of the three largest university hospitals in Germany. It is the only hospital in Schleswig-Holstein which provides the full range of services and ensures university-level medical research and teaching at 51 hospitals and 26 institutes, thanks to its close links to the medical faculties in Kiel and Lübeck. With some 10,000 employees on its payroll, the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein is the largest public employer in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading imaging and information technology companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and film related products and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa's headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3401 million Euro in 2006.
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and image management solutions, and state-of-the-art systems for capturing, processing and printing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The company has over a century of experience in diagnostic imaging and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990s. Agfa HealthCare today employs 5,700 staff members, with sales offices and representatives in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2006 were 1452 million Euro, accounting for 43% of total group sales.
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