Self Regional Healthcare aims to upgrade its PACS, enhance diagnostic imaging capabilities, and strengthen its financial position while optimizing staff workflows.  By adopting AGFA HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Cloud, they are poised to successfully achieve these objectives.

In a significant leap forward for healthcare technology in southwestern South Carolina, Self Regional Healthcare is set to transform its imaging capabilities by adopting AGFA HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Cloud. This partnership brings the advanced capabilities of cloud-based imaging technology, managed by a global leader in Enterprise Imaging, into the Self Regional Healthcare system.

Enterprise Imaging Cloud, a fully managed software-as-a-service (SaaS), will provide Self Regional with a cutting-edge imaging management platform. This platform combines the best financial and clinical benefits of a managed SaaS, including better cost control, fast scalability, high reliability, automatic software updates, and a carefree operating lifecycle. AFGA Healthcare manages Enterprise Imaging Cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS), allowing Self Regional to benefit from the robust security associated with AWS.

Solving Critical Healthcare Challenges

“We operate nine locations utilizing imaging services, and Enterprise Imaging Cloud will address several major challenges for us”, says Andy Hartung, Chief Information Officer at Self Regional Healthcare, “and, honestly, they’re the kinds of problems that a lot of healthcare organizations are facing.” For example, our existing PACS technology was at the end of its life and needed replacing. The unpredictable costs, reliability, and constant maintenance were a huge burden on our staff. We wanted to simplify image access and management for our clinicians, and we knew that the ideal forward-thinking solution would give our physicians and clinical staff a single view of all data together, including radiology, breast imaging, cardiology, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, and more. Enterprise Imaging Cloud gives us all of that, and a whole lot more.”

Visible and Subtle Advantages

“The platform offers Self Regional substantial benefits that are clear to see, and some perhaps not as obvious, but equally important,” says Mark Burgess, AGFA HealthCare President, North America. ”From a financial perspective, our Enterprise Imaging Cloud offers a consolidated purchasing model with a single annual price and predictable costs, which gives them much better cost control. That’s critical to any HCO’s growth plans. It also simplifies the expansion of facilities, departments, and service lines.”

“The less-obvious benefits are the advantages that Enterprise Imaging Cloud offers Self Regional’s personnel,” says Burgess. “And this holds true for any HCO implementing this system. Having AGFA HealthCare fully manage this platform for them reduces their workload, and when you combine that with the high reliability, security, and reduced downtime that the service delivers, it has to reduce stress, too. Plus, it gives clinicians the seamless operating experience which they need to stay productive, focused, and happier in their workplace every day. So, when you think in terms of healthcare’s Quadruple Aim—improve the patient experience, improve population health, reduce costs, and improve care team well-being—our Enterprise Imaging Platform really checks all of those boxes, including that last one.”

Enterprise Imaging Cloud offers IT Leadership:

• Reduced workload
• Better operating cost control
• Improved reliability and availability
• Managed security
• Maximized performance
• Fully managed Enterprise Imaging service
• Peace of mind, always up-to-date software, no risk of falling behind
• Satisfied clinicians

Unified and Collaborative Care

For Self Regional, AGFA HealthCare Enterprise Imaging Cloud integrates and embeds into Epic® EMR, creating an Imaging Health Record^TM across all of the HCO’s facilities. This integration will provide all members of a care team a singular, unified view—anytime, anywhere, on compatible mobile devices—of radiology, cardiology and ECG image studies, facilitating consultation, collaboration, and decision making. Additionally, the platform will enable referring physicians and patients to access their imaging health records, and they can share studies with referral centers, including the Medical University of South Carolina and PRISMA Health, South Carolina’s largest private, non-profit healthcare system.

Secure and Care-Free Operations

“Because the platform is powered by AWS,” adds Hartung, “we feel secure about the system’s availability and don’t have to worry about cloud infrastructure upgrades, network patches—none of it. With hassle-free technology that enhances workflow and diagnostic confidence, it leaves our staff—clinicians and IT—more time to do their best work and improve the delivery of patient care.”

About Self Regional Healthcare

Self Regional Healthcare is a not-for-profit, regional referral hospital that provides care to residents of Greenwood, Abbeville, Laurens, Saluda, McCormick, Edgefield and Newberry counties. Services include prevention and wellness, acute care and tertiary care services including cancer care, neurosurgery, heart and vascular surgery, NICU, orthopedics and genetics. Self Medical Group is its employed physician affiliate network of 44 practices and more than 200 physicians.