Mortsel, Belgium --Agfa HealthCare announces 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™ Hospital Information System (HIS), with an integrated Radiology Information System (RIS) and IMPAX™ Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The contract has already gone into effect. ORBIS has already been deployed in over 750 institutions across 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 short term, 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 by the board," stated Gunter Zwilling, Commercial Director of the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein. "Furthermore, Agfa HealthCare is recognized for its capabilities in managing similar large-scale 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 (Kieland Lubeck) 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 Germany. ""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 inGermany. At present Agfa HealthCare has references from university hospitals in Bonn, Cologne, Giessen and Marburg, Munster, Frankfurt and Dresden. This year, the University Clinic inHallehas also opted for the Agfa HealthCare Hospital Information System. Altogether, Agfa HealthCare has undertaken more than 250 PACS and over 210 RIS installations in the German-speaking countries in Europe.

More Industry Headlines