IMPAX PACS deployed across 31 NHS Trusts in just 20 months

NEEEM NHS Clusters, North East and East Midlands, UK

Radiologists in NEEEM region go digital, as deployment completed on time and within budget

In late 2005, Agfa HealthCare UK Ltd was awarded a multi-million pound contract to supply its IMPAX PACS to the 31 NHS trusts forming the NEEEM (North East, East and East Midlands) NHS clusters in England. The full deployment took only 20 months from the first installation at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to the last installation at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This was a huge achievement, because Agfa HealthCare started the deployment a year after some of its competitors.. The success of this challenging project can be attributed to Agfa HealthCare's proven experience of product installation and its dedicated training program. Trusts, such as Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and King's Lynn NHS Trust, can now securely share and rapidly access images, and save money.

The NHS CfH (Connecting for Health) program is probably the world's largest government-sponsored rollout of healthcare IT. Agfa HealthCare worked in conjunction with Accenture, NEEEM's LSP (Local Service Provider) to deploy its IMPAX PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) under CfH. CR 85-X high-throughput CR (Computed Radiography) systems and DRYSTAR laser printers were deployed alongside IMPAX PACS.

Complex project delivery on time and to budget

The project was very complex and demanding. The 75 hospital sites within the two NHS clusters together perform more than 10 million radiology exams each year, and switching from using X-ray film to digital images was the biggest change radiology had seen in a century. Furthermore, the NEEEM trusts are spread over a wide geographical area, from Gateshead in the north of the UK, to Basildon in the south.

Agfa HealthCare rose to the challenge and completed the entire project in significantly less than two years and within the agreed budget. The first trust "Went Live" with its IMPAX system in February 2006, and the last deployment was completed in time for Christmas 2007. This achievement is especially impressive, since the company began the deployment nearly a year after some of its competitors in the UK's other three NHS clusters.

One hospital "went live" with PACS per fortnight

Agfa HealthCare succeeded, in part, because IMPAX is a thoroughly market-tested product that was already operating in 62 NHS trusts and 300 UK hospitals, clinics and institutions across both private and public sectors. The company's expertise in medical information management meant that the installations went smoothly, with many sites able to go "filmless" within three months. Each deployment was carefully planned in consultation with the trust's IT department and the company allocated a project manager to oversee the deployment. At NUH (Nottingham University Hospitals) NHS Trust, a major teaching trust with 2,200 beds, for example, Agfa HealthCare's technicians advised on where to place CR units to optimize workflow. To minimize disruption, the IMPAX hardware was fully configured prior to delivery so, when it arrived on-site at the trust, it was ready for Agfa HealthCare's technicians to simply 'plug-and-play'.

Comprehensive staff training on- and off-site

Switching from X-ray film required an enormous change in every trust's working practices and affected thousands of clinical staff. At Nottingham, Agfa Healthcare equipment was deployed to approximately 3,500 users simultaneously. To help staff adjust, Agfa HealthCare offered PACS administrators off-site training at a purpose-built center (the Agfa HealthCare Training Academy) in Leeds. The fortnight-long course provided hands-on experience with IMPAX, and is accredited by The College of Radiographers. Dr John Somers, Consultant Radiologist and Clinical Lead at Nottingham says, "As a result of the training, our PACS administrators knew what they were doing before the 'Go Live'." The administrators taught other clinical staff, aided by an e-learning package also provided by Agfa HealthCare. At The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Trust, an acute hospital with around 480 beds, Agfa HealthCare trainers also provided basic systems training on-site to the trust's IT staff.

Saving patients and hospitals time and money

Amongst the advantages of going digital is eliminating X-ray film. Jim Gill, Radiology Services Manager, at King's Lynn, explains that, "The biggest relief is not having to manage an expensive film library, including dealing with repetitive filing". Combined with the improvement in image quality, eliminating lost films has reduced the number of repeat radiographs at UK sites using IMPAX by more than 80%.

Digital images are faster to process, retrieve and manipulate than film. John Sharp, PACS Project Manager, at King's Lynn says that, "You can request an X-ray image, and it will be on your computer screen a second later." Furthermore, Dr Somers says, "There is a whole raft of tools on IMPAX to manipulate images. IMPAX can be used with other packages for orthopedic planning and 3D reconstruction." Images can be shared between hospital sites via N3, the NHS's fast broadband network. This has allowed the two Radiology departments at Nottingham's major sites, the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, to function as a single entity.

The trusts are also saving money. Speaking at the Smart Healthcare expo in June 2007, Andrew Fearn, Director of IT Services, at Nottingham said that, "In total, we could save up to £14 million/19 million euros over the next eight years." The trust used to spend over £900,000/1.2 million euros annually on film processing; after going digital, it now spends an order of magnitude less.

Solution boxes

IMPAX

  • Web deployable giving instant access to images from anywhere
  • Smartcard enabled for better security and no more lost passwords
  • Meets the IHE standard for integration and fully compatible with desktops and legacy systems

Did you know

  • Agfa HealthCare won 2 of the 5 contracts to supply PACS to English NHS trusts under the UK Government's CfH (Connecting for Health) program
  • Agfa HealthCare is already upgrading trusts that adopted IMPAX early in the deployment from V5.2 to V6.0


Agfa HealthCare's contribution

  • Planned and delivered a unique digital imaging solution to each NEEEM trust
  • Provided College of Radiographers-certified off-site training and e-learning packages to clinical staff

  • Helped a trust "Go-Live" with IMPAX on average once a fortnight

Quotes

  • "The scale of the implementation process was incredible. The speed with which IMPAX was installed is a credit to the CfH (Connecting for Health) program and our software provider", Dr John Somers, Consultant Radiologist, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK.
  • "The hospital-wide Agfa HealthCare system has been well received by everyone. The image quality is very good and system response too. The system does what it says on the can", Jim Gill, Radiology Services Manager, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Trust, UK.