The Industrial-strength Imaging Executive
by Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle
Today’s medical-imaging profession is definitely not for the fragile and weak-kneed among our colleagues. It is becoming increasingly clear that navigating the constant changes and challenges that face the practice of radiology today will be the ultimate test of tenacity, perseverance, and creativity. We’re in the playoffs now, and the game is moving to the big-time arena—where the margin for error is nil.
Finger in the Wind
by Cheryl Proval
Physicians are in a real bind as fee-for-service reimbursement falls under attack and alternative payment methods (such as bundling and capitation) gain traction in Washington, DC. As of June 18, Medicare Part B claims were being processed with the 21.3% cut mandated by the sustainable growth rate’s formula, and House Democrats demanded legislation on jobs before they would pass the Senate bill to reverse the cut.
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Save the Date:
July 20, 2010 11am ESTTopic
Keep Your Hospital Relationships Healthy: Strategies for Every Practice
Presenters:
Randy Roat, CHBME, VP of Radiology, MMP, and George Ehrhardt, CPA, Director, Practice Management, MMP
Medical Management Professionals, Inc.
Topic
RIS to the Rescue | Strategies for Driving Revenue, Productivity and Profitability
Sectra
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Advanced Visualization | Next-generation Architectures
Visage Imaging
The Economic Case for Patient-friendly Imaging
As the technology used for radiologic studies matures, providers and referrers are increasingly focused on providing patients with a friendlier imaging environment—with good reason, according to Tariq Gill, MD.
Relationships Gone Wild
All across the country, in markets large and small, a drama once considered unimaginable is unfolding in ways that are shaking the confidence of many radiology practitioners and creating tension within the ranks of hospital administrators.
Training Technologists to Smile
In many imaging offices, the reception staff is coached and scripted, and its members might even engage in role-playing exercises in order to create the best experience for patients.
Developing Innovative Customer-service Initiatives
It could be the smiling greeter who welcomes patients into the facility, or the glasses of lemon water and the tray of cookies keeping them company in the waiting room.
Place Your Bets
Do you think that for-profit freestanding outpatient imaging is a phenomenon destined to go the way of Tyrannosaurus rex?
Back to the Future
In the publisher’s message for the inaugural issue of a new magazine.
Highly Functional Imaging
Great leadership will distinguish winning imaging organizations from those that struggle
Reform’s Caveat Emptor
In 2009, we find ourselves in more than just another new year.
Bread Lines and Cab Lines
I’ll admit it. The constant drumbeat of depressing news in the business and popular press about the downturn in the world economy had me spooked as I traveled to the RSNA last week.
The Ultimate Road Trip
Just in time, radiology providers are arriving at an understanding of their unique branding propositions.
On the Good Ship RBJ
What a year—what a breathless, heart-stopping, devastating, and hopeful year this has been for just about everyone I know, including all of us here at The Imaging Center Institute, publisher of Radiology Business Journal.
The Usual Suspects
As I read the cover story on radiology benefit managers (RBMs) in this month’s Diagnostic Imaging (DI) magazine.
Imaging’s Déjá-vu Moment
My conversation with a prominent radiologist was startling, even as it piqued my journalistic interest.
Magical Thinking Obscures the Goal: Improved Outcomes
High hopes have been pinned on the potential of IT to improve health care delivery here and around the world.
Radiologist, Find Your Voice
In a major front-page story, “The High Cost of Precision,” in its Sunday, September 7, 2008 edition, the Los Angeles Times once again focused on the negative side of CT technology.
Florida Hold’em
In the show down between Florida Hospital and Florida Radiology Associates, the winner took all
Physicians and the E Word
Physicians are understandably suspicious of efficiency efforts in medicine, but nowhere in the Hippocratic oath are they absolved from addressing the appropriate delivery of care
The Good, the Bad, and the Inspired
Finally, some good news for imaging.
What’s With the Attitude?
At least half of the elements of various success formulas, in business and in life, relate to one’s ability to keep a positive outlook—especially when circumstances make it most difficult to do so.
Growing Old Together
A lesson in business maturity: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met the company’s cofounder Bill Gates when they were both undergraduates at Harvard.
To Read or Not to Read
As Shakespeare’s famous Prince of Denmark did, many radiologists I know struggle with choosing between two mutually exclusive paths to fulfillment.
The Politics of Greed
It has been said that all we need to focus on, in the daily battle for market share in the rough-and-tumble world of outpatient imaging, is a practice’s unique value proposition.
20 Years in the Making
It was 20 years ago, almost to the day, that I created and launched the first issue of Imaging Economics, a publication that its editor, Cheryl Proval, and I subsequently built into a substantive magazine focused on the broad economic issues facing a then-transforming profession.
Heeding the Clarion Call
Like a POW on rice and water eating his first rib eye, an editor of a certain age finds no greater pleasure than getting her hands on 60-pound–paper stock after spending a year in the ether of electronic media.
The Loneliest Number
It has been said that the number one is the loneliest number, and it just may be that it is getting a whole lot lonelier.
Bookmark This: Yottalook
Tired of sorting through attorney advertisements when you Google mesothelioma?
Does Size Matter?
The recent business news about Microsoft making a run at Yahoo has me ruminating about the deal-making climate in outpatient imaging and how the current trend toward strategic partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions is changing the competitive landscape in many markets around the country.
New Horizons
There is a theme one finds in the writings and musings of the best business leaders that remains consistent no matter what industry, profession, or type of organization.
Chaos Theory Redux
This is the time of year when the Nobel prizes are handed out and that started me thinking about chaos theory and how the concept translates into our own profession’s mind-boggling array of alternative outcomes based on various approaches to the problems being presented, especially in today’s outpatient world.
Goodbye to Adolescence
I’m sure you remember the time very well.
The Changing Faces of Radiology
I have been musing about the past 24 years that I have been involved in the business side of radiology and how amazing the transformation of this profession has been during that time.
Real Rads Don’t Eat Quiche
A dilemma facing today’s increasingly complex radiology practices is an interesting one, given the fact that the forces of business are converging in a kind of perfect storm on the practice environment, creating an increasing need for a fundamental understanding of the value of the commercial side of the medical group from each partner.
Readers Respond: Denial, Disbelief, Anger
We have had many readers respond to last month’s editorial on the failure of our elected officials to grasp the malfeasance of the imaging cuts contained in the Deficit Reduction Act and to institute a moratorium.
Desperately Seeking Leadership
I have visited some 40 radiology practices or imaging center organizations in the past six months, and a recurring theme in the questions that I am asked regarding business strategy relates to the somewhat elusive notion of leadership in this profession of ours.
New Year’s Resolutions
With the new calendar year comes the annual opportunity to make our New Year’s resolutions.
Denial, Disbelief, and Anger
One can no longer sugarcoat or deny the fact that radiology is a profession under siege.
Noted Author Describes “A Whole New Radiology”
In the many strategic planning retreats that I have facilitated for radiology groups during the past couple of years.
The Old New Competitive Weapon
It was sometime during the spring of 1985 when I had the chance to meet in Boston with the person who coined the term CIO. Bill Sinnott was at the time was one of the only Chief Information Officers in the country and from his vantage point at the Bank of Boston he had written an intriguing book on the subject.
Imaging’s Unsung Heroes
I have the best job in the world.
Imaging’s “Hail Mary” Moment
You know the scene.
A Matter Of Perspective
An old saying has it that where you stand on a particular issue depends on where you sit. In other words, one’s point of view is heavily dependent on one’s frame of reference and milieu.
The Incredible Shrinking Growth Market
The literature is full of case studies detailing how business lifecycles at varying points in the maturity of markets affect growth curves and levels of sustainable profitability.
Whither Self Referral?
There is a wonderful scene in the book Sho-Gun in which a Portuguese pilot helps save the life of an English pilot when both are in a treacherous part of the world, far from the sea-based battleground where their respective countries battle for turf supremacy.
Hand Wringing Is Not a Solution
I was impressed by the crowd.
