The FINANCIAL — Royal Philips and the Sint Maartenskliniek hospital (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) on June 4 announced the signing of a new agreement that will extend their existing strategic partnership by 5 years and will now also include ultrasound and healthcare IT services.
This is an addition to the existing 10-year collaboration with Sint Maartenskliniek, started in 2012, that aims to optimize the hospital’s quality of care and long-term operational performance in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape, according to Philips.
Under the terms of the agreement’s additional contracts, the hospital will have long term access to Philips’ advanced Affiniti and EPIQ ultrasound technology and will use Philips’ IntelliSpace PACS digital image management system for storing and exchanging patient imaging data.
In 2012, Philips and Sint Maartenskliniek jointly developed a service-provision model that was unique in the Netherlands, being based on the provision of technology for a fixed cost per month rather than the traditional equipment and service purchasing model. The new service-provision model gives the hospital long-term access to advanced healthcare technologies, while also providing a fully transparent healthcare infrastructure investment scheme that minimizes risks.
Since then, Philips has supplied the imaging equipment for the hospital’s radiology department and operating rooms, which specialize in orthopedics, rheumatology and rehabilitation medicine. The equipment supplied includes MRI and CT scanners, and mobile and fixed X-ray systems. The addition of ultrasound technology for the hospital’s rheumatology and anesthesiology departments, and the IntelliSpace PACS digital image management system for its radiology department, now create an even more comprehensive partnership model.
“By renewing our partnership we can further improve the quality and efficiency of our healthcare delivery,”said Mark Van Houdenhoven, chairman of the Board of Management of Sint Maartenskliniek hospital. “This collaboration is an example of how we work closely together with the medical industry to make our patients’ care paths a streamlined and integrated experience in which prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation in the hospital and the home are seamlessly connected.”
“Extending our collaboration, and even expanding it, demonstrates how successful it has been and how confident both parties are in the existing relationship and in collaboration as a means of securing future healthcare,” said Henk Valk, General Manager of Philips Healthcare Benelux. “Healthcare is currently in a period of transition, and we can offer a flexible collaboration model to the hospitals we partner with that offers them security in the areas of innovation, quality and efficiency of patient care, and transparency with regard to their investment in medical technology now and in the future.”
Because of its cost-effectiveness and flexibility, ultrasound is a fast growing modality in the imaging systems market. In Sint Maartenskliniek’s anesthesiology department it is used for real-time needle guidance of locally injected anesthetics. Applications in the rheumatology department include the diagnostic examination of joints, including capsules, tendons and bursas – for example, making it possible to determine whether there is any fluid or inflammation present.
In the Netherlands, Philips currently has nine of these major partnerships.
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