ATLANTA – McKesson today announced the successful deployment of its market-leading medical imaging solution at the first four of 35 hospitals in Ireland as part of an exclusive partnership with the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE). Beaumont Hospital, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Sligo General Hospital and Waterford Regional Hospital are among the first to roll out McKesson's Horizon Medical Imaging picture archiving communications system (PACS) and radiology imaging system (RIS) as part of HSE's National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) initiative.
NIMIS is the world's largest integrated medical imaging project designed to move Ireland to advanced digital technology. Using McKesson's solutions will help ensure that all 3.5 million radiology studies performed each year in Ireland are available to clinicians at any time and in all locations for greater efficiency, safety and more accountable patient care. When NIMIS is complete, Ireland will have one of the most advanced and integrated radiology IT infrastructures in the world.
“PACS and radiology information systems (RIS) are at the heart of the modern radiology department,” explained Niall Sheehy, M.D., lead radiologist for NIMIS. “NIMIS will bring PACS/RIS to all public hospitals in Ireland and enable electronic image-sharing between them.”
Not only have the hospitals already experienced a significant reduction in radiology report turnaround times -- from up to two weeks to 30 minutes -- but the project also is the foundation for a national image archive.
Like many countries, Ireland had already begun the steps toward automation. In fact, one quarter of Irish hospitals have a PACS system where images are captured, stored and examined. However, without a centralized architecture, all existing PACS in Ireland acted in isolation with no sharing of images or patient data between facilities. Patients transferred or sent for second opinions required film packets or images stored on CD.
With McKesson's Horizon Medical Imaging, a single solution is being deployed across the country to link all public hospitals and standardize care through a central database that will serve as a national image archive. As a result, when patients are examined at any public hospital or outpatient clinic in Ireland, their entire imaging history will be immediately available to the clinical team, minimizing errors and accelerating decision-making.
McKesson also is implementing 3D and advanced visualization, research tools and electrocardiography for cardiology that integrate with Horizon Medical Imaging. In addition, a voice recognition system will permit immediate digital dictation, transcription and distribution of radiologists’ reports.
“With McKesson and representative hospitals from across Ireland, we invested the time upfront to create a central design methodology that standardized our implementation process,” said Neil O’Hare, professor and HSE NIMIS project lead. “This methodology helped to ensure success at each of our go-lives and allowed us to deploy the multiple sites in a short period of time.”
In addition to technology, McKesson offers a wide range of industry-leading services designed to help radiologists maximize the value of their image management solutions. For example, its storage service provides full disaster recovery with archiving in a single solution, helping providers eliminate expenses associated with storage, administration costs and hardware obsolescence.
“Imaging deployments can be complex and costly, but that isn’t the case with McKesson,” added O’Hare. “With McKesson, we get a digital imaging solution that is not just for radiology but includes specialties such as cardiology, vascular surgery, obstetrics and mammography.”
McKesson will roll out Horizon Medical Imaging at the remaining hospitals over the next twenty months. Five hospitals in the Northeast region will round out the first phase of implementations. The second phase will include Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Naas General Hospital and St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin.
“McKesson has extensive experience in delivering fully-integrated, interoperable solutions to help optimize medical imaging operations and streamline workflow across the care continuum," said Kevan Torgerson, president, Enterprise Medical Imaging, McKesson Provider Technologies. “We are excited to join HSE in bringing the future of healthcare delivery to the people of Ireland.”
About the Health Service Executive
The Health Service Executive (HSE) was established in January 2005 as the single body responsible for meeting Ireland’s health and social care needs. The HSE provides thousands of services to young and old, in hospitals, health facilities and in communities across the country. The largest employer in the State, the HSE employs more than 65,000 staff in direct employment and a further 35,000 staff are employed by voluntary hospitals and bodies funded by the HSE.
As the primary vendor leading a consortium of third party partners, McKesson participates on the HSE NIMIS Governance board, a team responsible for executive decisions that ensure a successful project deployment. With McKesson in this role, NIMIS benefits from a streamlined communications process, assured responsibility and accountability. This is a distinct advantage to successful implementation.
About McKesson
McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 15th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com.
