Outpatient imaging centers grow by adding new services

December 1, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. Vol. 30 No. 12 Outpatient imaging centers grow by adding new services Strategies target national as well as local trends, paying close attention to needs of referring physicians and finding new ways to increase patient satisfaction By Karen Sandrick Ms. Sandrick is a Chicago-based freelance writer and frequent contibutor to Diagnostic Imaging. Not so long ago, the sky seemed the limit for outpatient imaging centers. After modest growth through the 1990s, the number of freestanding imaging centers spiked 25% in 2001 and 15% in 2002. But growth fell to 6% in 2005, the year the Deficit Reduction Act was passed, and went down to 4% in 2007, when the DRA went into effect. The outlook remains far from dismal, however. The demand for outpatient imaging will explode in the next decade. When the last of the baby boomers reach age 65 in 2020, total annual imaging procedures are expected to rise 140%. And competition in the outpatient imaging sector will be reduced, as the downstream effects of the DRA have already winnowed an estimated 10% of the smaller imaging centers.

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