The radiologist involved in the incident indicated that the department’s burdensome workload resulted in reduced reading times, saying that this made their departmental standard of double reading scans “virtually unattainable."

VillageMD, which is majority-owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, is acquiring Summit Health in a deal valued at $8.9 billion.

The new study, presented at the AHA Scientific Sessions 2022 conference in Chicago, focused on data from more than 2,000 patients. 

Hospitals are rich and poised to get richer while independent physicians and groups continue to take it on the chin, facing ever more onerous pressures to consolidate under the headship of large hospitals, health systems or for-profit practice management companies.

“Without a clear reference standard technique that optimizes patient outcomes, device selection is based on availability and physician-driven selection, which can substantially impact procedural costs,” authors of a new cost analysis in Clinical Radiology stated.

The new guidance, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, covers a variety of topics, including thoracic aortic disease, peripheral artery disease, shared decision-making and cardiac imaging.

A three-site imaging operation in Hawaii has been turning away patients since Oct. 20 due to what its management initially described as unspecified “technical difficulties.”

The American College of Radiology is offering an initial appraisal of the rates CMS will pay next year for outpatient radiology and radiation oncology services through the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System.