ATLANTA, Dec. 1, 2009 – McKesson has signed an agreement with Continuum Health Partners to replace multiple medical imaging systems with a single integrated imaging solution aimed at streamlining the workflow and improving the productivity of more than 10,000 physicians. Continuum will deploy the Horizon Medical Imaging™ picture archiving and communications system (PACS) across its vast enterprise of hospitals and clinics that perform more than one million patient exams annually within the boroughs of New York City.
St. Luke’s – Roosevelt Hospital Center, which is a 1,076-bed operation comprised of two locations in Midtown and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has been served by McKesson’s PACS since 1994. As part of the agreement, it will upgrade to the newest version of Horizon Medical Imaging to become the first Continuum facility to deploy the state-of-art system. Beth Israel Medical Center, a 1,106-bed teaching hospital on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and a Columbia and Albert Einstein University affiliate; and The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, one of the oldest specialty hospitals in the world, will soon follow to completely replace their existing PACS systems with new McKesson technology. Multiple other associated radiology clinics also will make the move to the McKesson solution.
“The migration to an enterprise-scale PACS speaks to our uncompromising dedication to delivering quality patient care,” said Dr. Michael Abiri, chairman of the department of radiology at Continuum Health Partners, referring to the information silos and integration inefficiencies caused by their previous use of multiple, disconnected systems built and deployed throughout the years. “Our collaboration with McKesson is positioning Continuum for future growth within the upcoming years. With this new system all our medical teams, regardless of location, will be able to focus on what they do best – providing the best patient care possible.”
With the previous technology, Continuum radiologists had to move from one computer station to another to view images from various PACS systems representing different locations of image acquisition. With the implementation and integration of Horizon Medical Imaging, radiologists will be able to read studies in real-time and from any one location, no matter where the exam was performed. The system provides access to sophisticated imaging tools to view or manipulate images via the Internet – a vast improvement over expensive viewing stations installed in many of their homes today.
“Our radiology IT and medical teams will no longer have to navigate three or four separate systems, and patient images will be available across any access point at any campus,” said Tarek El Shayal, PACS manager for Continuum Health Partners. “Our previous configuration of multiple vendor systems simply did not give us the productivity and customer care results we strive to keep. With McKesson’s solution we will be able to simplify our complex network of hospitals and clinics to increase operational efficiencies, empower medical staff, and deliver cost savings and improved patient care for the years to come.”
“This agreement represents our ability to provide a PACS that can scale for organizations of any size, produce significant cost savings and provide data access that meets the need of today’s radiology leaders,” said Rod O’Reilly, president, Medical Imaging Group, McKesson Provider Technologies. “This is a great example of the compelling value of replacing legacy PACS with our enterprise solutions. We’re committed to Continuum’s success and honored to be the provider of choice for these innovative facilities that have played a vital role for generations in the communities they serve.”
