Community Medical Centers of Fresno CA, utilizes Agfa HealthCare’s IMPAX platform to transform cardiology department EHR

Mortsel, Belgium/Greenville, SC – 26 March 2014 – (ACC.14, Booth #2831)- Community Medical Centers, a leading not-for-profit health system comprised of three hospitals and four outpatient centers in central California, and Agfa HealthCare announced today that the implementation of Agfa HealthCare’s IMPAX HeartStation ECG management system and IMPAX CVIS has led to significant improvements in clinician efficiency and patient care management since the system integration into the EPIC EHR was launched at Community Regional and Clovis Community in March 2013 and then Fresno Heart & Surgical Center in October 2013.

Agfa HealthCare’s CVIS and ECG Management solutions have significantly streamlined the clinical workflow of the cardiology department by allowing realtime viewer connectivity to Agfa HealthCare’s HeartStation ECGs and patient medical records in the EHR viewing portal. These capabilities, combined with the system’s worklist, order completion and billing processes, have enabled Community Medical Centers to directly address several key Meaningful Use objectives.

Immediate access to complete patient information

“The integration of IMPAX HeartStation with our EHR is one of the most clinically valuable cardiology-related IT projects completed within our health system since going live with Epic,” commented Dr. Hagop Afarian, Chief Medical Information Officer of Community Medical Centers. “No longer is our cardiology department subject to inefficiencies and potential inaccuracies associated with inputting patient information into the system by hand and searching for past patient ECG results. Now, a cardiologist or clinician at any of our hospitals or outpatient centers is able to seamlessly view a patient’s IMPAX ECG images, along side their medical history, thus enabling more immediate access to information.”

“Cardiologists need efficient access to a patient’s past and current medical data as well as cardiovascular diagnostic exams in order to provide timely diagnoses for treatment regimens,” commented Dr. Ryan Berg, Cardiologist at Community Regional Medical Center, central California’s leader in comprehensive cardiovascular services. “This system’s ability to integrate patient medical records with corresponding ECGs and cardiovascular reports is a paradigm shift for our department and the entire Community Medical Center network in that it fundamentally streamlines patient care and enables clinicians to focus on medical outcomes.”

Streamlined clinical workflow

The IMPAX platform for cardiology is a comprehensive data management solution for cardiology departments. By implementing Agfa HealthCare’s solution with the hospital’s EHR, ECG images along with IMPAX CV exam reports are centralized to the patient EHR record. Worklists are available to enhance workflow by creating a streamlined process to evaluate patients, support efficient billing, and allow any clinician within the health system to access past and current cardiac patient data.

“Prior to this integration, all staff had to exit the EHR and log into IMPAX HeartStation as a standalone system,” stated Tamie Talley, Cardiology Computer Systems Specialist at Community Medical Centers. “Today, AgfaHealthCare’s IMPAX HeartStation is completely integrated with the EPIC EHR, Gateway worklists and TC70 ECG carts, providing our physicians with fast access to ECGs and allowing our ECG technicians more face-to-face time with our patients.”

“Community Medical Centers is an excellent example of the benefits a cardiology department and entire hospital system can experience with Agfa HealthCare’s IMPAX CV and IMPAX HeartStation platforms,” stated Tom Agar, Global Cardiovascular Marketing Manager, Agfa HealthCare. “By integrating patient ECGs and Cardiovascular reports within the EHR, all clinicians have access to patient information that could be pertinent in emergency situations or simply streamline the workflow process during a routine check up.”

Plan to visit Agfa HealthCare at ACC.14 at booth #2831. To arrange your personal tour and discussion, please e-mail [email protected] or visit www.AgfaHealthCare.com.

About Agfa

The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,865 million euro in 2013.

About Agfa HealthCare

Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading global provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions. The company has nearly a century of healthcare experience and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Today Agfa HealthCare designs, develops and delivers state-of-the-art systems for capturing, managing and processing diagnostic images and clinical/administrative information for hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as contrast media solutions to enable effective medical imaging results. The company has sales offices and agents in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2013 were 1,160 million euro.

For more information on Agfa HealthCare, please visit www.agfahealthcare.com or the Agfa HealthCare Blog. For images, courtesy of Agfa HealthCare, please visit www.agfahealthcare/resources.