Dear Imaging Center Insider,
Whether it’s a daydream or a concrete plan, most radiology groups in the U.S. have considered opening a freestanding imaging center. The market forces driving these initiatives vary, from a desire to control the technical as well as the professional components of billing and reimbursement, to a desire to provide a wider variety of imaging services and increase local market share.
However, the high business failure rate for imaging centers makes it clear that simply throwing open the doors to an outpatient imaging center is not enough. A thorough financial analysis must be performed before putting the money down on the table.
Dr. Jonathan Berlin and a team of researchers at Evanston Hospital-Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, have created a financial model for imaging center project decision-making that accounts for cost, cash flow, and a break-even analysis. The model collects data on multiple facets of imaging center operation for a specific geographic region, and enables the group to forecast the patient volume it will need to be profitable.
To learn more about the financial model developed by Berlin and his team, click here. As an AuntMinnie Imaging Center Insider, you have access to this story before it is available to the rest of our members.
In other news, be sure to check in next month for reports from the 2003 American Healthcare Radiology Administrators meeting in Anaheim, CA, from August 10-14. To access breaking news from the conference, just go to our Imaging Center Digital Community at centers.auntminnie.com.
