GE Healthcare Makes Medical Image Sharing More Seamless for Adventist Health

Enterprise-wide imaging and vendor neutral archive systems makes collaboration and access to medical records easier across the care team

BARRINGTON, Ill., July 30, 2015 — Following a medical scan, the time it takes for a patient’s medical images to be shared with his or her doctor and receive a diagnosis can vary from one hour to a few weeks. In today’s digital world, where people can share images with the touch of a button, healthcare organizations seek a more seamless workflow for image sharing and collaboration.

Today, GE Healthcare announced that it will provide Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Vendor Neutral Archiving systems for Adventist Health, a health delivery system serving more than 70 communities in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. As part of the five-year agreement, Adventist Health will utilize one enterprise-wide system, using Centricity Solutions for Enterprise Imaging in 18 of its community hospitals.

“It’s exciting to be laying a new foundation of infrastructure that will allow Adventist Health to eventually share all types of images seamlessly across the organization,” said Sheila Henriques, executive director of clinical IT projects with Adventist Health. “With our patient records increasingly comprised of more and more images, accessibility by providers, both internal and external to Adventist Health, is essential.  Images play a vital role in the patient’s medical journey, and it’s exciting to take this next step in enhancing care for our patients.”

Using this new system, Adventist Health clinicians will be able to store and view patients’ images on a common core platform, allowing for easy accessibility to a unified patient record and facilitating near real-time collaboration among the care teams. By consolidating disparate systems and centralizing access, Adventist Health can not only benefit from economies of scale, but also provide its clinicians easier access to patient history and reports when needed.

“GE Healthcare understands that IT solutions today must utilize technologies that improve the patient’s experience and a provider’s productivity,” said David Hale, Senior Vice President and General Manager, GE Healthcare IT. “Having system-wide medical imaging and archiving systems in your organization brings medical imaging beyond the walls of the radiologist department and allows providers to access a comprehensive patient medical record from multiple locations.”

The new IT systems that Adventist Health will utilize are part of GE Healthcare’s broader software upgrade. With the new version of Centricity Solutions for Enterprise Imaging, health organizations will now have the ability for more collaboration and more informed diagnosis with a common viewing system and an open vendor-neutral archiving platform across difference specialties. Healthcare professionals can also receive and view images from patients’ records on their mobile devices.

Adventist Health will begin installing GE Healthcare imaging and archiving solutions later this year.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter – great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. www.gehealthcare.com

About Adventist Health

Adventist Health is a faith-based, nonprofit integrated health delivery system serving communities in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Our workforce of 31,000 includes more than 22,350 employees; 4,800 medical staff physicians; and 3,850 volunteers. Founded on Seventh-day Adventist heritage and values, Adventist Health provides compassionate care in 20 hospitals, more than 275 clinics (hospital-based, rural health and physician clinics), 15 home care agencies, seven hospice agencies and four joint-venture retirement centers.