Agfa HealthCare has successfully implemented its latest IMPAX picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and radiology information system (RIS) at Isala Clinics in the Netherlands. Following a visit to Agfa HealthCare's demo site in Liege, Isala recognized that the solution would answer its needs for greater stability, very fast speed and excellent speech recognition. Agfa HealthCare and Isala worked together closely to configure the system to meet Isala's specific requirements for storage, a new radiologist workplace and a virtual software environment. The solution went live end of May 2013, and is already exceeding expectations.
A shared vision of the healthcare imaging future
Isala Clinics in Zwolle, the Netherlands, is the largest non-university hospital in the country, with over 5400 employees and almost 1000 beds. Its renowned radiology department performs some 250,000 exams each year. In August 2013, Isala Clinics will open its new, state-of-the-art 104,000 m2 hospital site in Zwolle. This very modern facility will include space for offices, research and treatment facilities, nursing wards, laboratories and other functions spread out across four buildings.
In preparation, the hospital invited Agfa HealthCare and its competitors to present their visions of the future of healthcare imaging. "Our vision most closely matched their own," explains Albert Vroklage, Sales Manager for Agfa HealthCare in the Netherlands. "Based on that, Isala Clinics visited our demo site in Liege, Belgium, and they agreed that our IMPAX RIS/PACS was the solution that would best fit their needs."
Optimized workflow and advanced features
The IMPAX RIS/PACS and Reporting solution optimizes the entire clinical and administrative workflow, from order evaluation and patient registration to image management, results distribution and management reporting. It thus makes departmental imaging more efficient, enables increased productivity, and allows departments to more effectively serve hospital staff, patients and referring GPs. The IMPAX 6.5.3 software version includes advanced features that focus on usability, workflow and productivity and business intelligence.
Committed to being in the forefront of healthcare technology, Isala asked Agfa HealthCare to configure the solution to meet some of their specific requirements. The hospital was creating entirely new workplaces for the radiologists. "By working together directly on configuration, validation, etc., the process went very smoothly," comments Albert Vroklage. "There was a lot of testing to be done, and it required real collaboration. But despite the complexity, the project was completed on-time, which was especially important as the hospital is preparing to move to the new site at the end of the summer!"
Speed, functionality and usability
Among performance improvements, Albert Vroklage highlights the increased speed of the solution: the waiting time for images has been decreased to a third, significantly improving productivity and patient throughput.
In addition, the radiologists were very pleased with the demonstration of Agfa HealthCare's integrated 3D clinical applications. "Their previous 3D software offered a lot of functionality, but was very complicated to use" he explains. "When the radiologists saw the integrated 3D applications in IMPAX, they were very enthusiastic about the usability!"
- 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 2,948 million euro in 2010.
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 2010 were 1,180 million euro.