Agfa HealthCare announces has successfully completed the initial phase of the ORBIS Hospital Information System (HIS) implementation at the Vivantes Netzwerk fur Gesundheit GmbH, Germany's largest municipal hospital group. Vivantes is well on the way to becoming a paperless group of hospitals. The introduction of ORBIS in the core medical activities of all nine Vivantes locations in the Berlin area at the end of 2006 marks the successful completion of one of Europe's biggest and most ambitious healthcare IT projects - all within the space of only two years' time. Vivantes' Operation Management department and part of the Radiology department, for example, are already using the new, centralized and paperless platform.

Two years after the contract was signed in September 2004, ORBIS is in operation in all nine Vivantes healthcare institutions. Before the start of the project, the individual hospitals and clinics of the group worked with systems from different manufacturers or with self-programmed software systems. The aim of the project was to standardize the existing heterogeneous system arena by replacing it with a centralized Hospital Information System (HIS), a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), and a Radiology Information System (RIS), all from a single source.

In addition to OT-Management (Operation Theatre), Service Center Management is now paperless, thanks to the centralized ORBIS platform, which allows for cross-departmental exchange of digital forms and documents. At two Vivantes institutions in Berlin, Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX has been installed, which permits teleradiology between the different locations and enables the transfer of digital images to external referring physicians - a service which is increasingly in demand. This system is to be installed throughout the other seven hospitals of the Vivantes group in the next stage of the project. Four hospitals already have an Agfa HealthCare RIS connected via a bidirectional interface to the central administrative IT-system and to the Patient Billing and Accounts departments.

Gunther Nolte, Director of Information Technology at Vivantes, recalls that "in order to support the integration process in our group with unified IT as speedily as possible, we needed a solution that would be comprehensive and integrative, not only in terms of technology and functions but also in terms of user friendliness." He adds: "By opting for ORBIS, Vivantes is in a stronger position technologically than previously and is excellently equipped for future tasks and challenges of the healthcare sector." Vivantes' Project Manager Jochen Thummler looks back on two years of project work: "Within a very short time, the highly efficient project team succeeded in making ORBIS, with its comprehensive functionality, accessible to more than 6,500 users. At this moment we are well placed to proceed with the development of the Electronic Patient Record."

Andrea Fiumicelli, Executive Vice-President IT Agfa HealthCare, comments as follows: "ORBIS has gone into regular operation on the exact day planned in the nine Vivantes Clinics - with 17 different locations and a total of around 3,400 workstations. We have again demonstrated our competency in implementing projects of all sizes, this time with one of the largest European IT projects in the healthcare sector. The immediate beneficiaries of this project are not only the users among the medical and nursing staff but certainly all Vivantes patients as well."

Marko Schmitz, Head of Sales HIS/LIS at Agfa HealthCare DACH, is pleased about the speed of implementation of this project of considerable size and complexity: "Right from the start, the ambitious objectives and the scope of this major project called for a centralized structure and a very tight timetable. This success and the seamless progression from one hospital to the next could never have been achieved without the smooth collaboration and clear vision of the project managers at Vivantes."

In 2007, Vivantes' primary focus will be the digital processing of medical images, films and videos. The hospitals of the group will be equipped with Radiology Information Systems based on the new ORBIS user philosophy NICE (New Interface for COOL Ergonomics). In addition, Picture Archiving and Communication Systems will be installed in specialist departments, such as Endoscopy. Other ORBIS modules (for nursing care), the Management Information Center (MIC) and a web portal will provide continuous improvement of economic efficiency and the delivery of patient care.