Sydney, Feb 5, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Spain, an IBA Health (ASX: IBA) Group company, has installed its hospital information solution at four health centres and one hospital in Portugal for private healthcare group ESSAUDE in a project worth $826,000 (Euro 519,000).

The system was installed in just four months. Running on a single database, the solution provides integrated patient management, clinical and financial applications across the five centres.

iSOFT's hospital information solution allows patients' medical histories to be managed electronically with clinical tools which provide accurate information for point-of-care tests as well as providing access to previous diagnoses and test results.

The Povoa de Varzim, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Amarante, Porto health centres and the Sant'lago-Setubal Hospital were acquired by the Portuguese group Espirito Santo Saúde (ESSAUDE) last year. iSOFT has worked with ESSAUDE since 2000 beging this latest project in September 2007. Within a month all five centres were using patient administration systems in outpatient, inpatient, infirmary, and pharmacy departments.

At the beginning of 2007, ESSAUDE expanded its hospital division considerably, acquiring Hospor, one of the most important hospital networks in Portugal, which comprised these four health centres and one hospital. As ESSAUDE's technology partner, iSOFT has supported its growth strategy by installing x-HIS as the corporate hospital information system for all its centres.

iSOFT has worked with ESSAUDE since 2000 and became its technology partner in 2002 after a formal agreement, worth $498,000 (Euro 300,000) a year, to install solutions at all ESSAUDE hospitals and health centres. ESSAUDE's growth strategy is based on acquiring and building new hospitals and is underpinned by iSOFT's solutions. Last year iSOFT completed projects for ESSAUDE worth $1.2 million (Euro 733,000).

Julio Bou of iSOFT Spain said: "Our Spanish solution has proven to be versatile and transferable to other health systems. Proof of this is the success of the projects carried out in Portugal with ESSAUDE and Mexico. We will continue to work with ESSAUDE, providing the support, knowledge and experience that iSOFT has in the development of international information technology applications, the main purpose of which is the improvement and optimisation of health services provided to patients and in this case, private health care."