Management

This page includes content on healthcare management, including health system, hospital, department and clinic business management and administration. Areas of focus are on cardiology and radiology department business administration. Subcategories covered in this section include healthcare economics, reimbursement, leadership, mergers and acquisitions, policy and regulations, practice management, quality, staffing, and supply chain.

vRad Names New Chief Solutions Officer

Minneapolis-based radiology and telemedicine company Virtual Radiologic (vRad) has named David C. Trachtenberg as its new chief solutions officer. Trachtenberg will be responsible for vRad’s marketing programs, as well as product development.

Unique Device Identifier Rule Could Impact Imaging Equipment Costs

The FDA proposed rule that all medical devices distributed in the United States carry a unique device identifier (UDI) will come with a cost says one presenter at the upcoming UDI Conference 2013

Hospital–Radiologist Alignment: Together, but Separate

Alignment increasingly occupies the thoughts of health-care stakeholders—insurers, legislators, and regulators, but especially hospitals and physician groups. Because alignment sets the stage for service and quality improvements, as well as for the implementation of cost-control mechanisms, the interest is warranted. Hospitals have sought to employ both primary-care and specialty physician practices for the ability to impose quality and cost uniformity through top-down policies, procedures, and cultural mandates.

Imaging-center Growth Hits the Wall in 2013; Volumes Plummeted in 2011

Persistent decreases in outpatient imaging reimbursement and a dramatic decline in volume finally took their toll on the imaging-center market, with a resulting 3.65% decline in the total number of freestanding outpatient imaging centers. This is the first contraction since the dip that followed the stock-market crash in 2009.

Gearing Up for Value-based Payment: The Race to Define Quality in Radiology

Today’s radiology dashboards let you know how your department or practice is running. They chart patient flow; report-turnaround times; critical-results reporting; and dozens of other data points that reflect cost, efficiency, productivity, and (sometimes) effectiveness. One of the primary goals of these dashboards is to support quality improvement, as CMS and other payors begin to link payment to performance—and to define performance using quality measurements.

When a Hospital Replaces a Private Practice—With a Teleradiology Company

When hospital executives express dissatisfaction with professional radiology services, local radiology practices should put on their nimble-response shoes and communicate. If they don’t, national teleradiology companies will, and the experience at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut is a case in point.

A Yawning Void

As Ezequiel Silva III, MD, makes perfectly clear in his guest editorial in this issue, the entire continuum of radiology delivery services is inches away from getting slammed—again. The root of radiology’s latest problem is in a 2007 report¹ (based on data of an even earlier vintage) from RTI International, LLC, that recommends separate cost centers for MRI and CT.

Direct Radiology Plans to Fight vRad Patent Lawsuit

According to the leaders of the national teleradiology partnership Direct Radiology, LLC, the lawsuit Virtual Radiologic (vRad) and NightHawk Radiology Services filed alleging patent infringement is unfounded and meant to intimidate competitors rather than protect patent rights

Around the web

The ACR hopes these changes, including the addition of diagnostic performance feedback, will help reduce the number of patients with incidental nodules lost to follow-up each year.

And it can do so with almost 100% accuracy as a first reader, according to a new large-scale analysis.

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