Rhapsody Integration Engine Implemented at National Guard Health Affairs; Orion Health Software Helps Connect Saudi Arabia's Military Health System

Saudia Arabian Hospitals invest in hospital informatin systems to integrate patient data. Electronic health record data to be exchanged using Orion Health Rhapsody Integration Engine, a Best in KLAS health technology solution.

Riyadh (PRWEB) March 17, 2008 -- Orion Health Limited (http://www.orionhealth.com), a leading provider of integration and clinical workflow technology to the health sector, was pleased to announce today that National Guard Health Affairs (www.ngha.med.sa) (NGHA) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has adopted the Rhapsody™ Integration Engine as their standard tool for integrating information systems.

NGHA selected Rhapsody (http://www.orionhealth.com/rhapsody) to manage and secure communications between NGHA health care information systems.

"Integration was identified as a key challenge for National Guard Health Affairs as it continues to expand its I.T. capabilities," explained Mohammed Abdullah Al-Musalam, Assistant Director, CIMS at NGHA's King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. "When we evaluated integration tools, Rhapsody stood out as the easiest to customise. It could meet any of our interface requirements and requires minimal staff training. This enables NGHA to build interfaces ourselves and accelerate our I.T. projects."

Currently Rhapsody is being used to ensure interfacing between a number of NGHA's existing information systems, including QuadraMed CPR (HIS), Lumedx-Apollo and Philips CareVue.

In the first half of 2008, NGHA plans to extend the range of messages handled by Rhapsody to include Admissions, Discharges and Transfers (ADT), electronic clinical orders, laboratory results and medication messaging.

"We believe that the Rhapsody Integration Engine is proving popular because it puts control of interfacing in the hands of the hospitals and health authorities in the Kingdom," said Ed Percy, Chief Technology Officer EMEA for Orion Health. "Rhapsody allows health organisations such as NGHA to pursue an ongoing programme of I.T. modernisation without the worry about how to handle the integration of new systems with legacy infrastructure."

About National Guard Health Affairs

http:/National Guard Health Affairs (www.ngha.med.sa) (NGHA) is a large health organization providing modern medical care to National Guard employees and their dependents, as well as to Saudi Nationals with tertiary health problems. Under the umbrella of NGHA, there are four hospitals and sixty primary and secondary health centers around the Kingdom. Two of these hospitals are Imam AbdulRahman Al-Faisal Hospital (IAAFH) in Damman and King Abdulaziz Hospital (KAH) in Al Ahsa.

NGHA is successful in providing the lowest mortality and morbidity rates among the patient population despite the fact that the Emergency Care Center continues to be the Level I trauma center for the Kingdom. More information can be found at www.ngha.med.sa

About Orion Health

Orion Health (http://www.orionhealth.com)'s easy-to-use solutions and applications improve patient care and clinical decision making by providing integrated health data in a single, unified view. By enhancing existing healthcare information systems, Orion Health's Rhapsody integration engine, Concerto clinical portal, and workflow solutions provide healthcare workers with easy access to patient data and trends, and reduce errors and omissions by streamlining information transfer.

Worldwide, Orion Health is implementing health information communities involving over 35 million patients with tens of thousands of active users. Orion Health's partners include leading health system integrators and IT vendors such as Accenture, IBM, Oracle Corporation and others. Orion Health has more than 1,000 clients around the world, including University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, the Ministry Of Health And Consumer Protection of the Balearic Islands (IB-Salut), the Ministry of Health of Valencia, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More information can be found at www.orionhealth.com.

Media Contact:

Richard Cotman

Orion Health Limited

Tel +44 7890 637 024

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