Florida-based imaging provider Akumin announced Monday that it’s dedicating 10 of its freestanding, outpatient imaging centers specifically to testing coronavirus patients.
The investor-owned firm said the centers will begin operating under this new service model on Wednesday, March 25, offering CT, x-ray and ultrasound to patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Akumin radiologists will deliver imaging to sick patients, the company noted, “to the extent they have been ordered by a physician who determines such services to be necessary or useful in connection with their medical assessment.”
“Akumin is taking these actions to do its part to help its communities in response to COVID-19 by dedicating healthcare resources to dealing with this pandemic while ensuring the safety of its employees and patients,” CEO Riadh Zine said in a statement issued March 23.
The company emphasized that it will continue to follow all CDC, state and local guidelines related to infection control, with “heightened” safety measures in place at these sites, located in Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Akumin added that the rest of its 125 imaging centers—which also operate in Delaware, Kansas, Georgia and Illinois—will remain open during the pandemic (subject to local laws and CDC guidance). Those locations, however, are screening patients for the virus before entry, and steering sick patients to its dedicated coronavirus locations, where possible. Akumin is also working with local health officials to serve as an “alternative imaging option” for hospitals that are slammed by COVID-19.
The Plantation, Florida, provider added that in some cases, it’s delaying routine cancer screenings, in a bid to preserve personal protective equipment and stop the disease’s spread. All told, Akumin employs 135-plus board-certified radiologists, performing more than 3,000 procedures per day.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.