Across the country, radiology groups, faced with a less-than-favorable reimbursement outlook and increasing expenditures, are considering selling their practices to or entering into joint ventures with hospitals. As with any major financial decision, a detailed discussion of the pros and cons is required, and there are several factors of which

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act made accountable-care organization (ACO) one of the most feared buzzwords since capitation, but if the concept of ACOs is framed within its larger context, which is a nationwide collaborative-care initiative with federal support, participation begins to seem less onerous.

One can’t help but seek significance in the death of someone as iconic as Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs. Of all the things that he meant to those of us who have made our careers in the business world, among the most important and lasting, I believe, is that he had a unique and highly visible passion and love for his chosen path. Yes, he was a

When Leo Reina, president and CEO of Reina Imaging (Chicago, Illinois), a radiography repair and manufacturing company, first entered the business 32 years ago, long-bone imaging was still largely the purview of chiropractors and orthopedists. “Chiropractors would do it looking for curvature of the spine,” he recalls, “and as prosthetics became

Exactly what portion of the hospital bottom line comes from imaging? It’s a straightforward question, but even hospital executives occasionally grope for an answer.

This article is third in a four-part series about health-care reform’s impact on radiology. To read the first article in the series, click here; to read the second, click here.

The Joint Commission’s 2011–2012 standards will bring changes for hospital radiology departments, according to Judith M. Atkins, RN, MSN, president and CEO of McKenna Consulting in Charleston, West Virginia, and Robert A. Wise, MD, medical advisor to the Joint Commission’s Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation. Atkins outlined some of these

In 2006, Tenet Healthcare Corp of Dallas, Texas, was operating 20 outpatient imaging centers across the country, and it was watching its outpatient imaging volume continue to slide. Dale Skrnich, senior director of outpatient services for the organization, explains that many of the imaging centers were being operated as hospital departments; “They