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.

The ACO Around the Corner

Perhaps because they don’t hang a sign out front, they aren’t located in one place, and they are (in a sense) virtual, accountable-care organizations (ACOs) have quietly blanketed nearly half the nation

Disruption Survival Guide

In a fast-paced market, the ability to defend a business against (and to take advantage of) disruption is crucial for staying ahead of the competition. Disruptions have traditionally altered the trajectory of many industries: Digital photography has rendered film obsolete, music downloads have diminished CD sales, and tablets have largely replaced netbooks

Cardiac Imagers: Pay Attention to Clinical Trials

The cardiac-imaging community, indeed any imaging community, should pay close attention to clinical trials. Why? The results of the trial will determine the rationale for imaging. The rationale will determine reimbursement, reimbursement will influence demand, and demand will affect supply. This is the new economics of imaging.

Anatomy of a Pay Cut

My initial reaction was to flinch and move on, like a punch-drunk fighter, when I heard about the 90% assumed equipment-utilization rate in the omnibus bill intended to avert the fiscal cliff. Instead, I bear witness to the latest in a series of cuts to the technical and professional components of radiology reimbursement.

ACR Dose Index Registry Surpasses 5 Million Scans

The ACR says more than five million CT scans and nearly three million exams have been added to its Dose Index Registry™, bringing the ACR closer to establishing national benchmarks for CT dose indices

Choosing Wisely Campaign Adds More Imaging Tests to List

Pediatric CT for minor head injuries and stress tests using echocardiographic images to assess cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic patients are now on the campaign's list of common tests/procedures that are “not always necessary” and may in fact be wasteful and harmful

WSU Study Finds Ways to Reduce Radiology’s Carbon Footprint

Wichita State University (WSU) research designed to lower energy and material consumption within radiology also creeps delicately into the clinical decision-making realm where some tests, like MRI, have a bigger carbon footprint than others

TeraMedica Mobile-enables VNA Product

Vendor-neutral archive provider TeraMedica says it will introduce Evercore® Connext Mobile at the upcoming 2013 HIMSS conference

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.