The Protestant Foundation Augusta is a hospital group with a total of three locations and more than 1,100 beds. The Augusta-Kranken-Anstalt, a protestant, non-profit hospital is the biggest house in the group with 567 beds. At the hospital sites Bochum-City Center, Bochum-Lindenand the Protestant hospital of Hattingen the hospital of maximum medical care holds available a total of 16 specialised divisions. Here about 27,000 stationary and 13,000 ambulant patients are treated yearly.
In today's era of DRGs and continuously mounting cost pressure, there is a growing need to design PACS solutions as integrated comprehensive solutions, and they have to represent the entire image management of a hospital or a group of hospitals. This is the only way they can meet the aim of integrating all diagnostic activities into a uniform patient record. This way they contribute to a reduction of reading times and patient stays, and help improve quality of patient care through optimized communication.
Increasingly today, hospitals are deploring a shortage in qualified medical specialists. It is therefore obvious that these physicians are not available in all the locations where they are required. For the purpose of ensuring, nevertheless, top-quality patient care, interest focuses increasingly on telemedicine applications. It is through the support by modern technology that each hospital can access expert know-how - at a global level. In addition, this approach helps establishing cross-sector and integrated models of care. Rapid and seamless communication of image and reporting information is an important cornerstone of structures such as these.