Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, has successfully installed the HYDMedia Archiving and Document Management System (DMS) at the Marienhospital in Osnabruck, part of the Management katholischer Krankenhauser der Region Osnabruck (MKO) holding, in northern Germany. With its integration into the existing ORBIS™ Hospital Information System (HIS), HYDMedia is being used in an IT arena that consists almost exclusively of Agfa HealthCare solutions for the first time. In addition to ORBIS, the facility's system configuration includes Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS RIS (Radiology Information System) and its IMPAX™ Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS).

The HYDMedia solution was installed at the hospital over a period of four months and is connected to ORBIS via the patient interface. The roll-out of the DMS to two more hospitals of the MKO-holding, the St. Franziskus-Hospital Harderberg and the Krankenhaus St. Raphael Ostercappeln, is planned to be completed by the end of 2008. The Osnabruck Marienhospital has 521 beds and employs a staff of 1,450. It is one of three clinics - with a total of 1,200 beds - run by the Management Company of Catholic Hospitals in the Osnabruck Region, which has been using Agfa HealthCare solutions since 2002.

Klaus Wystub, IT Manager at MKO, says: "The advantage of the HYDMedia solution is its ability to provide physicians and hospital personnel with direct access to files of patients who have just been discharged, as their files are digitized immediately. The whole procedure is very convenient and time-saving." He continues: "Agfa HealthCare has done a great job with the integration into our existing IT arena overall and with ORBIS, ORBIS RIS and IMPAX specifically. In addition to the basic functionality HYDBase, which is already up and running, the HYDOffice solution is currently being installed and the HYDSmallScan solution is undergoing trials at this moment."
HYDBase forms the central document management platform behind the Hospital Information System (HIS). Thanks to the high level of integration, the physician does not notice that he or she is working with the HYDMedia Archive while, for example, retrieving patient files directly from ORBIS. HYDOffice supports the audit-proof, paperless archiving of data from any Office application, including MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-Access and MS-Outlook. Reiner Niehaus, Sales Manager at Agfa HealthCare Germany, comments: "With the inclusion of HYDMedia solutions into our extensive portfolio, we have added a powerful application to our market-leading range of IT solutions for the entire healthcare industry. We are certain that this successful installation will convince more of our long-established customers to introduce the HYDMedia archiving and document management system."

Agfa HealthCare acquired German based HYDMedia, a Document Management System provider to hospitals and healthcare centers in February 2007. HYDMedia's Document Management Systems enable the archiving of medical information such as diagnoses, radiology results, microfilms and clinical and administrative documentation.

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