Philips Expands Its Leadership in Healthcare IT, Providing Customers with Comprehensive, Integrated and Proven Information Management Solutions.

ANDOVER, Mass. -- Philips Launches New Xtenity Enterprise for Mid-sized Hospitals

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today unveiled its portfolio of leading-edge enterprise and departmental information technology (IT) solutions at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual meeting in Dallas, highlighted by the most significant product stemming from the Philips and Epic Systems Corporation collaboration to date -- Philips Xtenity Enterprise. The new enterprise-wide system represents the first Epic-powered IT solution designed for the significant mid-size hospital segment.

Featuring a patient-centric, enterprise-wide system, Philips Xtenity Enterprise is an integrated solution built around a core data repository. The solution includes clinical and administrative functions -- computerized physician order entry (CPOE), decision support tools, registration, scheduling, admission/discharge/transfer (ADT), billing and a patient portal -- all designed to improve quality of care, drive efficiency, and enhance patient safety.

Philips recognizes that customers want to lower costs and demand less complexity and tighter integration across their hospital enterprise. Philips Xtenity Enterprise addresses these issues by providing a single vendor solution, a single consistent user interface experience and web portal technology for enhanced patient and clinician communication as well as support for industry standards that enable interoperability with legacy systems. In addition, it is open and configurable to match customer needs, while providing a single shared electronic health record across the healthcare enterprise.

According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concerns in the healthcare industry persist regarding information technology and preventable errors, uneven healthcare quality, and communication among physicians and hospitals. At a recent U.S. Presidential event to promote electronic health records (EHR), President George W. Bush and Dr. David Brailer, head of ONCHIT, estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people die every year from medical errors, noting that centralized patient data could help doctors and patients keep better track of treatment and reduce these inefficiencies.

"With a comprehensive portfolio of Healthcare IT solutions, Philips is moving the healthcare industry closer to the goal of an EHR with proven and integrated information management solutions," said Stan Smits, CEO, Medical IT, for Philips Medical Systems. "We are excited to offer such a broad and dynamic range of departmental to hospital-wide IT solutions. Products like the new Xtenity Enterprise exemplify Philips approach to offering choice, flexibility of integration and interfacing, and clinical decision support, enabling clinicians, administrators, and technology professionals to better address key healthcare issues like patient safety, workflow, and overall care quality."

Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Metro Health will be the first customer to implement Philips Xtenity Enterprise, powered by Epic. As a healthcare organization consisting of Metropolitan Hospital and the 150-member Kent Health Care Physician Organization, a group offering both primary and specialty care services throughout the Grand Rapids community and surrounding counties, Metro Health requires solutions that create fluid and streamlined clinical workflow efficiencies. Philips, Epic and Metro Health intend to trigger enhanced information sharing from healthcare providers across a wide geographic area at every stage of the Metro Health network, with full functionality beginning next year.

"We are eager to partner with Philips and Epic to implement Xtenity Enterprise," said William J. Lewkowski, vice president and CIO, Metro Health. "This comprehensive and proven system will better connect our extensive collection of healthcare offices and services, helping us deliver on our promise of safe and more efficient patient care. Our physicians, affiliates and patients will benefit from our strategy of information integration since it will help provide simplicity, efficiency, data integrity and patient safety."

The Epic collaboration combines Philips deep departmental expertise in medical imaging and patient monitoring products with Epic's industry-leading enterprise hospital information system (HIS). Working together, both companies aim to develop unique, comprehensive solutions that fill the gaps in the management of a patient's EHR, a critical topic within today's healthcare landscape.

For more information on Philips departmental and enterprise-wide products and solutions please visit HIMSS booth # 4945.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $ 37.66 Billion (EUR 30.3 billion) in 2004. With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 161,500 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.