Philips signs $16M long-term imaging partnership to bring big city tech to rural hospital
Royal Philips recently announced that it has signed a five-year partnership with a rural South Carolina hospital, helping to bring cutting-edge imaging tech to a smaller-sized organization.
This continues a trend as the Amsterdam-based company looks to lend more stability and predictability to the acquisition of new diagnostic technology. Officials with Regional Medical Center (RMC) in Orangeburg, South Carolina, said signing such a $16 million agreement will help the small provider to take some of the complexity and guesswork out of its long-term imaging strategy.
“Delivering truly outstanding care requires our clinical teams to be at the forefront of the latest developments in medicine,” President and CEO Charles Williams said in a statement. “Having access to quality imaging solutions is key to getting to a faster diagnosis and treatment, which will enable us to continue to expand care and ultimately improve patient outcomes,” he added.
Located about an hour from Charleston, RMC is the sole acute care provider covering a 2,400-square-mile radius in South Carolina. It includes a 286-bed hospital, along with 24 primary care and specialty practices in the region, and a brand new $8.6 million emergency care facility in the city of Denmark.
Signing such a partnership, officials noted, will allow RMC to standardize imaging platforms and integrate workflows across the enterprise. This will permit providers to quickly access patient data to help make quicker care decisions, those involved said.
“With 1 in 5 Americans living in rural areas, it is important that we work with health systems like Regional Medical Center to bring innovative care closer to home for the communities they serve,” added Vitor Rocha, chief market leader of Philips North America. “Together, we can ensure that patients in more rural counties get the same access to quality care as their big city neighbors.”
Philips announced a similar partnership earlier this month with New Jersey-based Inspira Health, stretching across five years and totaling $50 million.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.