May 21, 2008—Siemens and IBM have announced that they will work together to help community hospitals reduce their operating costs and energy consumption.
Hospitals currently using or planning to use Siemens MedSeries4, a healthcare information system designed specifically for community hospitals, can now benefit from the bundling of powerful server technology from IBM that features the company’s POWER server, its energy-efficient, environmentally friendly BladeCenter Servers, Tivoli Storage Manager software, and specially configured IBM System Storage DS3000 and DS4000 IBM systems, say the companies.
Blade server technology is proven to assist organizations in driving down operating and maintenance expenses, allowing for lower total cost of ownership, reduced data center space requirements, lower energy consumption, and streamlined data center management, notes IBM. According to initial cost analyses conducted by IBM and Siemens, the organizations project that community hospitals could cut initial hardware costs by approximately 25 percent.
Installed in more than 400 community hospital facilities, including eight major healthcare chains, MedSeries4 delivers true value with low total cost of ownership, a high level of integration, and streamlined system operation, says Siemens. MedSeries4 strategically facilitates the drive toward computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) and an electronic health record (EHR), making patient data available via an integrated, Web-based healthcare information system.
MedSeries4 also integrates multiple solutions with reliable, top-quality performance on IBM’s POWER platform. In addition, MedSeries4 uses IBM’s WebSphere and the DB2 Universal Database, which combine to offer simplified management of complex environments.
The collaboration between IBM and Siemens will help to extend the power of MedSeries4 in even the most complex IT environments, where further reductions in core operating costs are required to increase profitability and ensure the ongoing ability of community hospitals to provide healthcare services to the public, say the partners.
