April/May 2011

While there have been significant changes in the imaging market over the past 20 years, we continue to witness sea changes within the sector, increasing pressure on operators, administrators, and physicians. Within Saint Thomas Health Services (STHS), Nashville, Tennessee, inpatient and outpatient imaging services are available predominantly in

Many factors have contributed to radiology’s increasingly important role in our health-care system and to the specialty’s contributions to medicine. Demographics suggest that radiology will continue to be demanded by the physicians who will care for an aging and expanding population.

Health-care providers today have a heightened interest in streamlining operations and reducing capital outlays to maintain or improve margins. In an increasing number of cases, cloud-based solutions and software as a service are being embraced by the radiology sector to meet these challenges—but not before a careful analysis that goes beyond cost

As a manifestation of their core DNA, physicians dislike being led. As a corollary, physicians dislike, to a greater or lesser extent, their leader, particularly those leaders actually empowered to lead. To circumvent the leader problem, physicians tend to select a democratic form of governance for their practice, thus diluting the position of the

The idea is at once simple and profound: An entirely new health-care provider, given incentives by the Medicare Shared Savings Program to defragment health-care delivery, improve quality and patients’ health, and reduce costs—thereby preserving Medicare and fee-for-service reimbursement. It’s the much-discussed but little-understood accountable

It is a daunting task to understand and stay current with the various Medicare rules that have an impact on the delivery of radiology and imaging services. The fast-approaching effective date for the accreditation of advanced radiology services, the new supervision rules, and the proper use of radiologist extenders (radiologist assistants or

Nearly every radiology department or practice will be affected by accountable-care organizations (ACOs)—because even if it chooses not to become part of one or more ACOs, it will probably be competing with them. Since some types of ACOs will be granted the ability to sidestep current price-fixing and self-referral restrictions, according to

After a period of hypergrowth from 1994 to 1996, hospital mergers and acquisitions declined from a height of more than 450 transactions in 1996 to a mere 50 in 2009. John Reiboldt, managing director of Coker Capital Advisors (Alpharetta, Georgia), says that the merger/acquisition market is heating up once again with the return of many of the

If at first you don’t succeed, then go ahead and fail, but do it intelligently. Failure, in fact, not only should be dissected and analyzed, but should be planned for—and, if done well, celebrated. That’s because failure, according to Amy C. Edmondson, not only is inevitable in complex systems (such as a busy hospital emergency department), but is

This is the final article in a series of three providing a primer for radiologists and imaging professionals interested in clinical trials.

Do not underestimate the importance of physical and administrative safeguards when securing patient data. According to Adam Greene, JD, MPH, attorney with the US DHHS Office of Civil Rights, 66% of patient-data breaches involving 500 patients or more were due to theft and loss (Figure 1). Just 7% were due to the more sensational category of hacking

It was interesting recent announcements¹,² from Google (Mountain View, California) that got me thinking about our similarities. Google’s new ranking system was not universally endorsed, especially by those organizations that are not in the business of creating and frequently updating original content. The company that virtually invented the modern