A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
DR Systems (San Diego), maker of the Unity RIS/PACS, reported five new contracts with healthcare facilities, totaling nearly $6.5 million.
The company also reported a record sales year in 2006.
The five new facilities contracts are with: Arizona Medical Clinic (Peoria, Arizona), Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center (San Luis Obispo, California), Valley Radiology Consultants (Escondido and Poway, California), Excela Health (Greensburg, Pennsylvania), and Downey Regional Medical Center (Downey, California).
The largest contracts, all well in excess of $1 million, were with Excela Health, Downey Regional Medical Center, and Valley Radiology Consultants.
Excela Health resulted from the merger of three hospitals. The facilities, which join the services of more than 575 physicians representing some 35 clinical specialties, are located in Westmoreland County and parts of Fayette and Indiana Counties, in Pennsylvania.
An independent, non-profit medical center, Downey Regional Medical Center has served the residents of Downey, California, and the surrounding communities for more than 80 years. The hospital is currently licensed for 199 beds.
Valley Radiology Consultants says it provides state-of-the-art imaging and vascular surgery as well as minimally invasive image guided interventional therapy in northern inland San Diego County.
DR Systems bills itself the leading independent provider of medical imaging and information systems for diagnostic imaging centers and hospitals. The company says it has helped more than 250 hospitals and imaging centers improve the management of patient information, eliminate film costs, and increase workflow speed.
Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and the Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA; Boston) reported that Philips Consumer Healthcare Solutions has been awarded a contract as the preferred provider for telehealth products and services for VNAA members.
VNAA serves as a group purchasing organization and has selected Philips’ remote patient monitoring as its preferred telehealth offering, and it said that Philips Lifeline is the VNAA’s preferred provider of medical alert services.
Philips said it is offering a comprehensive telehealth program to VNAA members, including wireless telemonitoring measurement devices, robust clinical content — including patient education, validated health surveys and risk assessment tools — as well as “innovative” pricing models and service delivery and implementation support. Philips also launches its risk assessment service as part of the VNAA contract.
The telephone-based screening is intended to help agencies stratify their patients based on risk, identify care intervention opportunities, and determine which patients may be suitable candidates for telemonitoring.
VNAA President/CEO Carolyn Markey, said, “Philips brings state of the art software and wireless hardware, as well as a one-of-a-kind financial model to the array of options in telehealth. Many of our members who thought that they could not afford a telehealth program will now be able to think again. We have had a long standing relationship with Philips Lifeline, which has been a model collaboration, and we look forward to enhancing that partnership through the Philips telehealth program.”
Philips Consumer Healthcare Solutions offers telehealth solutions for home care and disease management, including remote monitoring for patients with chronic conditions, risk assessment services, and Motiva interactive platform for patient education and self-management.
The VNAA is the national association for non-profit, community-based Visiting Nurse Agencies that care for about 4 million patients annually. The nation’s network of 415 or more Visiting Nurse Associations employ about 150,000 professionals and share a non-profit mission to provide compassionate home healthcare to the elderly and individuals with disabilities.