Whether an entity is being partnered or acquired, up-front money is always the first consideration. While no one denies the importance of dollars, Todd J. Sorensen, a partner at VMG Health (Nashville, Tennessee), warns his clients that even the most lucrative deals can go sour if cultures clash and operational issues make life miserable.

On September 1, 2011, the Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert related to radiation dose from diagnostic imaging. “If a patient receives repeated doses, harm can occur as the cumulative effect of those multiple doses over time,” the alert states. “Conversely, using insufficient radiation may increase the risk of misdiagnosis, delayed

As health care continues to struggle with a hobbled economic outlook, few aspects of operations have remained unscathed—and those include the financial processes related to the acquisition of new imaging equipment, according to Mark Hoffman, senior vice president of the health-care group at Key Equipment Finance (Superior, Colorado). “In the past

There is no more compelling story in radiology today than the urgency with which organized radiology and imaging modality vendors have come together to address the issue of dose management in radiology. Yes, more work lies ahead, and significant challenges remain—but the swiftness and decisiveness with which providers and vendors have cooperated,

In September 2010, California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger™ signed into law a measure mandating that radiologists include dose–length product or volume CT dose index in all reports. Such a development probably spurred many imaging service providers to begin thinking about radiation-dose–reduction initiatives, but Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center

Dose management (including dose-reduction strategies) is a dominant topic of conversation throughout the imaging world. Cross-disciplinary efforts to resolve the issue are moving to the forefront of both vendor and provider dockets, spurred on not least by quality metrics that tie reimbursement rates to patient outcomes.

Hospital medical staffs are increasingly expecting more from radiology—and small, traditional groups are struggling to keep up with those demands. That was the situation faced by Charles Rhoades, assistant administrator of clinical ancillary services at El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC) in California.

Reston Radiology Consultants (Ashburn, Virginia) is a hospital-based imaging practice in business for over twenty years that includes several outpatient centers, including MRI of Reston, where four systems carry an imaging load that reaches a combined average of 24,000 studies annually. This suggests a fair amount of volume seen at that lone