Pictures of the Future      Fall 2005

High-Tech Helps a Million Patients

Suzhou Municipal Hospital is an example of how investment in advanced technology can pay off for hospitals in China.

The lobby of the municipal hospital in the southern Chinese city of Suzhou resembles a train station. The flow of people coming through the revolving doors never seems to stop, and there are long lines at the reception desks, where patients try to make appointments, pay their bills or pick up their pre­scriptions. And because all the plastic seats in the lobby are occupied, some patients are sitting on the floor. Suzhou Municipal Hospital (SMH) provides treatment to one million outpatients every year, with an additional 28,000 people cared for in the hospital’s various wards. The hospital is also the scene of 9,000 births each year.

Such huge numbers are normal in China, but even larger than the number of patients treated at SMH is the amount of documents, bills, X-ray images, lab results, diagnoses and prescriptions generated there. "Our X-ray archive alone takes up several rooms," says the hospital’s chief radiologist, Prof. Xu Jianming. "So you can imagine how long it sometimes takes us to locate a certain file."

Those with big problems also need to have a great vision, which is why SMH was one of the first Chinese hospitals to enter the digital age. "Resources at Chinese hospitals are very limited," says Prof. Yu Kangmin, who served as the director of SMH for more than 20 years. "That’s why it’s so important for us to utilize modern technology in order to save time and money." Considering this, the hospital invested €1.5 million in digitizing its image management system. At the heart of the new system is the Sienet Sky image-archiving and communication unit from Siemens, which enables all images generated by X-ray machines, computer tomographs and magnetic resonance devices to be stored, processed and made available to all hospital stations. The system, which has been in operation since June 2004, has not only made doctors’ work easier and reduced patient waiting times; it has also proved to be a good investment.

From Four Hours to Two Minutes. Increased efficiency has generated huge savings. "It used to take around four hours before an X-ray print was sent to a doctor for diagnosis," says Xu. "Now it takes two minutes." As a result, the number of daily X-ray examinations has doubled from 150 to 300 and income at the radiology department has more than tripled. That’s because Chinese hospitalfee guidelines allow clinics to raise their fees if they utilize improved technologies that offer more rapid service. An X-ray photo used to cost a fee of the equivalent of €2.70; today it costs €8.00. SMH is also saving €150,000 a year on photographic materials, since images are only archived digitally at the hospital, although patients can request a print.

This financial success could lead to a breakthrough for digitization in China, Yu hopes. In 1999 he installed one of China’s first hospital data processing systems at SMH for €300,000. The investment paid for itself after just one year, thus laying the financial foundation for procuring Sienet. "Sienet is paying for itself even more quickly than we anticipated," says Yu. "It will take only two years to recoup our investment, which means we can use the profits in 2006 to further improve our technology." Although Yu reached retirement age last year, he will continue to support the digital development he launched. The hospital has asked him to stay on as Honorary President with special responsibility for technical modernization.

Sienet was implemented in two stages. Between December 2002 and August 2003, the radiology department was networked, and the individual stations were connected to the network in a process that lasted until June 2004. All the interfaces are in Chinese, and the registration program originally installed by a local supplier was integrated by Siemens into Sienet. The system processes 70,000 images a year and can be expanded as needed.

It will take some time before SMH becomes a true digital clinic in which all processes are integrated. Nonetheless, the original vision is no longer a dream. It’s a work in progress. Since the hospital introduced the system, dozens of delegations from all over China have come to visit SMH and learn about Sienet. "One of Siemens’ big advantages is that it not only develops and sells software but also produces many different types of medical equipment," says Han Wenguang, a 28-year-old radiologist who is system administrator for Sienet. "That means Siemens knows exactly how workflows can be net­worked." It took Han only two weeks to set up the program with the help of two Siemens employees and then become acquainted with it. "Sienet is very user-friendly," he says. "It generally takes our doctors only three or four days to learn how to use it."

Han now manages the system completely on his own. Siemens has already designated SMH as a Sienet reference facility in honor of the hospital’s successful installation and utilization of the system. Other medical facilities are now following SMH’s example. The university hospital in Guangxi province, for example, is installing Sienet Sky. And Deng Li, Siemens’ project manager for Sienet in China, is already thinking ahead to the end of the year, when the Chinese-language version of a larger Sienet platform, Sienet Cosmos, will be completed. "There’s huge demand for this type of system," says Deng, "and we can now prove that Siemens offers exactly the right solution."
                                                                                                          Bernhard Bartsch