It was the contract termination heard ‘round the world when Florida Radiology Associates (FRA) ended its 40-year relationship with Florida Hospital last year. Negotiation of a new contract barely got off the ground before the hospital formed its own in-house radiology group, poaching the majority of FRA’s staff. The incident raised eyebrows in the

The answer to that question may appear obvious to imaging informatics professionals, but a study released earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) disputed the ability of health informatics to reduce health care cost. Now, all of us in radiology have seen the ability of informatics to reduce imaging costs within the radiology

The server requirements of any modern hospital are daunting; the back-end processing power necessary to operate multiple health information systems across an enterprise of any size requires an ever-shifting configuration of blades, proxies, failover systems, and disaster-recovery solutions. It’s no wonder, then, that a five-hospital system with 2

The typical 10-physician practice will spend $285,240 to comply the new federal mandate to adopt the ICD-10 code set by 2011. The controversial proposal from HHS would significantly increase costs for physician practices and clinical laboratories, according to a new cost study initiated by a broad group of provider organizations and conducted by

No one faces a constantly changing landscape more than the CIO at a large health care institution. Until recently, Michael T. Balassone was CIO at West Virginia University Hospitals, a 522-bed teaching hospital and medical complex in Morgantown. He currently serves as senior information officer, University Medical Associates, Medical University of

Increasingly, radiology-practice CIOs and their hospital counterparts are being called on to interact with leadership across the organization to help drive strategic initiatives. This new level of responsibility requires CIOs to be precise and prepared for conversations with their peers across all of the organization’s business functions.

What do hospital administrators and their CIOs fear above all else? It may be information theft, especially if that information includes sensitive patient data. Nothing grabs the attention as completely as learning that a laptop laden with patient data has slipped out the door. With preparation, though, such an event may be prevented, and if it is

No sooner did CMS call for an October 1, 2011, compliance date for the switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes than a hue and cry arose from the health care industry, claiming that the change comes too soon.