Case Studies

Countless healthcare providers of every type heaved a sigh of relief when CMS announced a one-year grace period following the Oct. 1, 2015, launch of ICD-10.

How do you lead change—even when you’re not in charge? The answer to that question is both simpler and subtler than one might think, and it’s readily applicable to radiologists, radiology business managers, radiology technologists and everyone else within the sphere of medical imaging.

Relationship building is one of the most time consuming aspects of running a business.

Things are a bit complicated in healthcare, to say the least. Whether it's additional regulations, a competitive market or changing patient demographics, care delivery is becoming more complex every year.

A full year has gone by since 425-bed Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles went live with a new enterprise-wide EMR solution from Cerner.

It was a gutsy move even by the standards of the borough that is home to the New York Yankees, the birthplace of hip-hop, and the largest zoo in the East: At just 23 years old, with no direct experience in healthcare, Joel Reisman decided to dive into the deep end of the outpatient medical imaging business in the Bronx.

Radiology and cardiology departments have long produced significant imaging volumes, but the volumes of imaging exams performed in other specialties are now easily surpassing that amount.

With radiology continuing to refine its niche in a rapidly evolving healthcare environment, Sruti Nataraja, MPH, managing director at the Advisory Board Company, believes that one of the major themes coming out the past year is, “The consumer-driven health care market has arrived.”

With the possible exception of diffusion-tensor MRI for concussion in athletes, no clinical imaging procedure stands a chance of bumping information technology-with its attendant ripple effects on regulatory compliance and business performance-off radiology’s figurative front page in 2016.

As the "volume to value" movement reshapes healthcare economics across the U.S., radiology is reminded daily that it is by no means exempt from the new and somewhat nebulous fiscal demands.

Consolidation and change are roiling the healthcare marketplace, and the repercussions are being felt throughout the vendor landscape, including the vibrant imaging IT segment that is so fundamental to the practice of 21st century radiology.

For all its high-tech gadgets, tools, prompts, aids and reminders, the modern radiology report really isn’t all that different from the first of its kind, rendered as a longhand note.