February, 2002

Kodak Awarded Contract From Hereford Hospital NHS Trust

Hereford Hospital NHS Trust has awarded Kodak the contract to provide a digital imaging infrastructure at the new acute County General Hospital, which is due for completion in April 2002. The hospital is being built under the Government's PFI initiative in conjunction with Mercier Healthcare.

The Kodak system will migrate the Trust to soft copy reporting, achieving the objective of a filmless environment at the earliest opportunity with minimal disturbance to patients and A&E services. Phase I is complete with the installation of a CR print solution consisting of two state-of-the-art Kodak DirectView CR 900 Systems for image capture and two Kodak DryView 8200 Laser Imagers with PACS Link to replace the existing conventional processing facilities.

Phase II, scheduled for completion to coincide with the hospital opening in April, will undertake installation of a robust upgradable long-term archive, capable of three year storage initially, increasing as necessary to meet an anticipated demand of 160,000 mixed exams per year. A short-term archive will also provide 3-6 months online storage.

The new Kodak PACS System will link to all modalities and interface to the hospital's RIS for efficient workflow and intelligent prefetching of images. Radiologists will undertake soft copy reporting at conveniently sited workstations and remote viewing of images via review stations or the web will be available in selected clinical areas such as A&E, CCU, ITU, Orthopaedic Outpatients, Main Outpatients and the Emergency Admissions.

Commenting, Judith Ratledge, Radiology Services Manager, said, "Kodak was our preferred supplier for a number of reasons. The CR interface is extremely easy to use and will enable our radiographers to use the equipment efficiently with minimal training.

"We had confidence that Kodak clearly understood our clinical requirements and could demonstrate not only the benefits of PACS and how a filmless environment saves time and increases the efficiency of workflow, but also provide value for money. On a site visit to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in South Wales, where there is a fully integrated department-wide Kodak PACS, and were impressed not only with the system that handles in excess of 100,000 examinations annually, but how well the staff had adapted to new ways of working."

Future plans by the Trust include an extensive roll-out programme of image distribution for GPs and A&E plus additional remote viewing and radiologist reporting stations, extension of web viewing to all wards and links to community hospitals.

Representatives of Kodak and the Hospital pictured at the recent contract signing.

Seated are Kieran Lappin, Director of Finance (left) and Chris Briggs, Kodak's Business Manager for UK and Ireland.

Standing left to right: Malcolm Williams, PACS System Manager; Peter Knight, Senior Project Manager; Dr Gillian Rowe, Clinical Director; Malcolm Pickering, Kodak's PACS Sales Co-ordinator; Dr Peter Wilson, Consultant Radiologist; Paul Knight, Business Manager Combined Services; Richard Turner, Kodak's PACS Project Manager and Judith Ratledge, Radiology Service Manager.

Kodak is a trade mark

For further information, please contact:
Giulia Pitney
Health Imaging
01442 844648 (Tel)
01442 844842 (Fax)