Business Intelligence

Providers utilize business intelligence to monitor referral patterns and collaborate with clinicians who order their services. Such analytics tools have also been deployed in the specialty to improve productivity, track patient satisfaction and bolster quality.

Street Scan: Gores Group Jumps In with HealthSouth Buy

The Gores Group, LLC, came out of left field to snap up HealthSouth Corporation’s entire portfolio of 54 imaging centers with a $47.5 million offer. A private equity firm with holdings in telecommunications, business services, and manufacturing, Gores’ HealthSouth acquisition represents a new platform for the company, soon to be one of the industry

Radiation Dosage Monitoring in CT

Was it just a few years ago that potential to reduce exposure was one of the benefits touted for adoption of multi-slice CT?  Then, in 2001, the FDA issued a Public Health Notification to emphasize the importance of keeping radiation doses during CT procedures as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA).  Concerns with monitoring patient radiation

Gadolinium and You: Why Imaging Centers Should Be Concerned

The connection between gadolinium and the disease known as nephrogenic fibrosis syndrome (NFS) presents an urgent and immediate reason for imaging centers to amend MR policies, procedures, and protocols.

Legislative Watch: AMIC Perseveres in Battling Imaging Cuts

Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (AMIC) was organized in early 2006, soon after Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 which significantly reduced the level of funding for medical imaging services provided in independent imaging facilities and physician offices. AMIC represents more than 75,000 physicians and medical providers, as

Dose Awareness Movement Gains Steam

Efforts to raise awareness of radiation dose in medical imaging saw significant activity on three fronts this past month, suggesting that radiology may be mobilizing to raise awareness of the issue. The National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements (NCRP) released preliminary results of a new study showing a five-fold increase in exposure

CXOFiles No.1 Leading Jefferson Radiology: Mark S. Grossman

When Hartford, Connecticut-based Jefferson Radiology came calling roughly a year-and-a-half ago for Mark S. Grossman, he was happily ensconced in a large radiology practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. But the opportunity to serve Connecticut’s largest private radiology practice, founded in 1963, proved irresistible. All of the ingredients for success were

Next Up: Rationing Radiology?

Here we go again! Just when the DRA impact is beginning to be felt as the A/R collections period from Q4 06 morphs into the reality of weaker cash receipts in Q2 07, the American College of Radiology (ACR) Regulatory Update that I attended at the recent Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA) meeting in St Louis revealed the insipient

Brent James, MD, at the RSNA: What Will We Do Before the Bill Comes Due?

Emerging from the two addresses delivered by noted health informaticist Brent James, MD, at the last meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), attendees could not help but ask the above question. If ever there was a case for managing the utilization of care, that time is now.

Around the web

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.