Sandwell General Hospital Installing Integration Engine in Just 10 Days; Orion's Rhapsody Lowers IT Integration Costs for Healthcare.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and Orion Systems Limited, a provider of enterprise application integration (EAI) and clinical workflow technology for the health sector, today announced that Sandwell General Hospital is participating in the Rhapsody "10 Day Challenge" to install the Rhapsody(TM) Integration Engine in 10 business days.

Sandwell General Hospital is the first customer of the Rhapsody "10 Day Challenge," a campaign that undertakes to install the Rhapsody Integration Engine in UK hospitals and health organisations in 10 business days or less.

"Sandwell General Hospital was looking for a means of upgrading certain system interfaces to a more robust, more easily maintained product that would give value for money, immediate benefits, and the prospect of cheaper future interfacing costs," said Richard Brand, Head of Electronic Patient Records, Sandwell General Hospital. "Rhapsody offered all this and will also be a strategic element of our communications infrastructure that will allow the Trust to develop the national Integrated Care Records Service Strategy."

As part of the project, six of the hospital's existing computer systems are being integrated, including Infoflex Oncology, OPAS Orthotics, Protos Diabetology, Tomcat Cardiology, Cortex Pharmacy and Telepath Pathology.

Specialists from System C Healthcare Limited, one of Orion Systems implementation partners, are undertaking the implementation work for the Rhapsody project at Sandwell. System C has already installed Rhapsody at several hospital sites in the UK, including Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust and Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust.

The Rhapsody 10 Day Challenge offers a cost-effective path to IT integration for NHS trusts and health providers throughout the UK through a "fixed price" offer. If the installation of Rhapsody takes longer than 10 business days, any extra days of consulting and implementation necessary are provided to the customer free of charge.

As Orion's CEO Ian McCrae explains, "To our knowledge, Rhapsody is the only integration engine product that successfully addresses cost issues for hospitals integrating their existing computer systems. In the past, snowballing consultancy and support fees have sometimes blown out the overall price of such projects to double, or even triple, that of the integration engine itself. With the Rhapsody 10 Day Challenge, you know that there is an absolute price ceiling for the project, above which costs cannot rise."

For hospitals and trusts that already operate an integration engine, Orion is also offering to replace their existing engine with Rhapsody in 10 days or less.

Rhapsody provides an easy tool that enables hospitals to undertake integration and interfacing "in-house," without the need for extensive outside consulting. Clear graphical tools and industry-standard JavaScript allows hospital IT staff to effectively manage integration work themselves. Much of the need for consultants can be avoided, reducing the cost of integration.

Orion will be promoting Rhapsody and the 10 Day Challenge at booth B13 of the annual Healthcare Computing conference (HC2003) in Harrogate on the 24-26 March 2003.

About Rhapsody Integration Engine

Rhapsody provides a cost-effective integration engine with tools that are easy to use and are fully backed up by Orion's customer support team.

Rhapsody is based on open standards, combining rapid implementation with lowered overall cost.

Rhapsody provides unparalleled ease of integration and ease of use, allowing hospitals, NHS trusts and other health organizations to coordinate and streamline exchange of data between applications and with external partners - securely delivering the right information to the right place at the right time.

More Information about Rhapsody and the 10 Day Challenge is available at www.10daychallenge.com/uk.

About Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching Trusts in the United Kingdom with a reputation for excellent staff who provide high quality care from three hospitals: City Hospital in Birmingham; Rowley Regis Community Hospital in Rowley Regis; and Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich. The Trust operates more than 1400 beds and employs more than 7,000 staff. For more information, visit www.swbh.nhs.uk.

About System C Healthcare

System C Healthcare specialises in the development and implementation of innovative, integrated IT solutions. Formed in 1983, System C is now a leading player in healthcare IT and is one of the few suppliers with 100% focus on the UK healthcare market. System C's products are used in 23 NHS Trusts around the UK. For more information, visit www.systemc.com.

About Orion Systems Limited

Orion Systems Limited is a global leader in enterprise application integration technology for the health sector. Orion provides innovative software that integrates and enhances healthcare systems, saving time and money while improving efficiency and outcomes. Orion's award-winning tools and applications facilitate the secure access to and exchange of information between hospitals, doctors and clinicians, improving the communications and connectivity between providers. Orion's products are used and trusted by customers include Walsall NHS Primary Care Trust, Swindon Marlborough NHS Trust, Tameside & Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust, Oracle Corporation and Philips Medical Systems. More information can be found at www.orionhealth.com.