New Solutions Integrate and Improve Hospital Workflow

Innovative vendor-neutral, open standards-based solutions enhance the electronic medical record (EMR) by integrating workflow and improving efficiency.

The Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium) IMPAX Data Center is a medical imaging repository that allows healthcare facilities to efficiently manage and share clinical imaging information. Using standards-based infrastructure, IMPAX serves as a central component of a hospital's archive, access, and disaster recovery strategies across a wide range of departmental picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) and imaging solutions, consolidating data from disparate systems into a single point of storage and distribution via the EMR, providing physicians with point-of-care (POC) access to the complete patient record, optimizing the radiology workflow and improving communication and collaboration between healthcare providers.

IMPAX Scheduling is an internet-based enterprise scheduling and planning solution that enables hospitals and clinics to increase productivity by more efficiently managing appointments and multiple resources in real-time. Staff can schedule an appointment with minimal clicks within one workflow screen, enabling healthcare providers to deliver timelier, more efficient patient care. The Scheduling solution requires minimal training and accommodates different workflows according to specialty. Additionally, the standards-based solution extends connectivity with IHE-compliant systems to facilitate the seamless exchange of patient data, orders, appointments, and other information.

"IMPAX Data Center enterprise storage capabilities help us reach our goal of a personal medical record that is 'virtually attached' to a patient, making the patient's health information available whenever and wherever the patients are present for care," said Lynn Witherspoon, MD, system vice president and chief information officer of the Ochsner Health System (New Orleans, LA, USA). "By supporting a clinician's ability to access imaging data from disparate PACS or other departmental systems, we are improving medical decision-making by helping them obtain a more complete picture of their patients' health."

Another Agfa HealthCare solution, IMPAX Kiosk, improves the patient experience and reduces the waiting time at registration while reducing administrative costs for the organization, and improving the accuracy of the collection of patient check-in information. At the self-serve kiosk, the patients can identify themselves, check in, and sign documents electronically.

Related Links:
Agfa HealthCare
Ochsner Health System