ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Under a multi-million-dollar agreement Park Ridge Hospital will contract with Eastman Kodak Company to transform the hospital's film-based radiology department to a state-of-the art operation featuring the latest digital image and information management technologies.

Additional financial details were not released.
The transformation, scheduled for completion by year-end, will make Park Ridge's medical imaging capabilities among the most advanced in the region.

"It will enable us to serve patients and referring physicians with a higher level of diagnostic quality--and to do so faster and more efficiently," said John Glynn, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Park Ridge, a leading community hospital in the greater Rochester area.

Under the agreement, Park Ridge will purchase KODAK CARESTREAM PACS (picture archiving and communications system) for the review, storage and distribution of patient radiology images; and KODAK CARESTREAM Enterprise Information Management (EIM), which will enable centralized management of images and information--such as physicians' reports and administrative documents--from radiology, cardiology and other clinical and business areas.
The agreement also calls for Kodak consultants to help redesign Park Ridge's radiology workflow to maximize the many efficiency gains now possible with CARESTREAM solutions.

The Kodak digital solutions will replace earlier digital products at Park Ridge that still print many patient x-ray images to film.

Compelling Advantages
"Kodak's solutions offer compelling advantages," Glynn said. "The PACS delivers innovative radiology image and information management. At the same time, Kodak's EIM solution will enable us to streamline record storage and access for clinical and non-clinical information systems throughout the hospital. These advantages translate into specific benefits that every radiology professional at the hospital will see, as will patients and referring physicians."

Among the benefits are:
*\tHigher level of patient care. Innovative diagnostic reading tools with Kodak's PACS, such as 3D image display, increase diagnostic confidence. "Our radiologists will be able to spot abnormalities more readily, which can lead to earlier detection and improved patient care," said Susan Sproule, Senior Director of Nursing & Patient Care Services, Park Ridge Hospital.
*\tFaster review of patients' medical imaging exams. Hand-delivering medical films to radiologists for review will be a thing of the past at Park Ridge. "Instead, the Kodak PACS will enable us to transmit medical images electronically for viewing and diagnosis on a computer screen," Sproule explained. "In fact, we will be able to transmit to radiologists and referring physicians simultaneously, speeding the diagnostic process and significantly reducing patient wait times."
*\tRound-the-clock access to radiology images and reports. Kodak's solutions will enable Park Ridge to send imaging studies to radiologists and referring physicians over the Internet--anytime, anywhere. "Even if a radiologist or referring physician is at home or is attending a medical conference in another city or country, he or she can have total access to patient images and information," Sproule noted. This capability will further enhance the diagnostic process and enable patient treatment to begin in a timelier manner.
*\tEasier access to prior exams, and fewer lost films. "Today, our medical images are stored in hardcopy files in a remote part of the hospital," Sproule pointed out. "When patients come in for follow up exams, we must retrieve prior images from these files, so comparisons can be made with new images. Doing so takes considerable time, and occasionally the films are incorrectly filed or lost. Moving to Kodak digital solutions will alleviate these problems, since medical images and related information can be stored electronically--in a highly organized fashion--and can be retrieved with the click of a mouse. This capability further reduces patient wait times and gives everyone involved peace of mind." Sproule also pointed out that Park Ridge will gain some operating benefits: The hospital can eliminate rows of file cabinets that currently store hardcopy medical films and can put the space to better use.
*\tAdditional operating efficiencies. With CARESTREAM EIM, Park Ridge will be able to more efficiently manage images and information stored in a variety of IT systems across the hospital--in departments ranging from cardiology and radiology, to admissions, pharmacy and surgery. "EIM will help us reduce expenses by providing intelligent, automated management tools and by equipping us with centralized management of our decentralized storage systems," Park Ridge CIO Glynn pointed out. "More important, perhaps, our different departments will be able to share each others' databases via a couple mouse clicks. Consequently, exchanging patient information, such as exams, prescriptions and billing information, will become easy." Right now, much of this information is shared manually among departments, which consumes time and is labor-intensive.

"We are proud that Park Ridge Hospital chose to do business with Kodak's Health Group," said R.L. (Vern) Davenport, Chief Operations Officer, Healthcare Information Solutions, and Vice President of Kodak's Health Group. "The selection committee's choice of Kodak and our products serves as one of many proof points for the great future we envision for our business."

Why Kodak Won Bid
The Park Ridge selection committee, comprised of Glynn and a mix of IT professionals, radiologists and administration officials, evaluated seven Kodak competitors before purchasing the CARESTREAM solutions.

"What impressed us most," Glynn said, "is the expertise of people within Kodak's Health Group and their dedication to ensuring that all the digital systems in radiology--not just Kodak's--will work compatibly and optimally with one another and with other IT systems in the hospital."
Equally important, the Park Ridge officials feel that Kodak's medical imaging and IT systems "are so advanced they will serve our hospital well into the next decade," Glynn said.

When installation of the systems begins this month, the Professional Services team within Kodak's Health Group will examine and map the existing workflow in Park Ridge's radiology department and will document each step in its delivery of services. "The Kodak team will then recommend an optimal workflow for the new digital environment, pointing out the many benefits it will render," Glynn said.

Members of the Kodak team also will help migrate existing images and information from the hospital's current information storage and archiving platform into the new system. In doing so, they will integrate the new PACS with the existing radiology information system and with the hospital's centralized storage area network (SAN), which will achieve cost-saving efficiencies for the ongoing management of storage systems that maintain long-term access to critical data.
"These integrated digital systems will serve to synchronize and marry information from patients' initial visit, x-ray exam and following-up consultation," Kodak's Davenport said. "When you combine those benefits with the improved diagnostic capabilities that these advanced systems provide, the positive impact on the level of patient care is significant."
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About Park Ridge Hospital
Park Ridge Hospital is an affiliate of Unity Health System, a 681-bed health care network serving the city of Rochester and western Monroe County. Specialty units include intensive care, surgery, psychiatry and behavioral health, obstetrics, brain injury rehabilitation, and skilled nursing. Park Ridge Hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals and Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), is affiliated with the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Park Ridge Hospital has been recognized with the 2006 Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence ^TM from HealthGrades, the nations leading independent healthcare ratings organization.

About Kodak's Health Group
Kodak's Health Group, with 2005 revenues of $2.65 billion, is a world leader in supplying the medical and dental professions with advanced healthcare products, services and information technology solutions. Its broad portfolio includes picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), radiology information systems (RIS), healthcare information systems, computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) systems, laser imagers, mammography and oncology systems, x-ray film systems, dental imaging products, and a range of consulting--as well as repair and maintenance--services.
Kodak is the world's foremost imaging innovator, providing leading products and services to not only healthcare customers, but to the photographic and graphic communications markets. With sales of $14.3 billion in 2005, the company is committed to a digitally oriented growth strategy focused on helping people better use meaningful images and information in their life and work. Consumers use Kodak's system of digital and traditional image capture products and services to take, print and share their pictures anytime, anywhere; Businesses effectively communicate with customers worldwide using Kodak solutions for prepress, conventional and digital printing and document imaging; and Creative Professionals rely on Kodak technology to uniquely tell their story through moving or still images.

For more information about Kodak's Health Group, contact your Kodak representative or visit www.kodak.com/go/health.
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KODAK and CARESTREAM are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company.

© Eastman Kodak Company, 2006