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DRA Driving "Used" Equipment Sales
Diagnostic imaging centers have long relied on the cost-savings benefits of buying refurbished versus new radiology equipment. But with the steep, across-the-board imaging cuts of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) taking a toll on radiologists, many are increasing their purchases of "pre-owned" equipment.
DEBORAH BALSHEM |
Excimer Laser Ablation Clears Patient's Leg Artery Blockage in Record Time
John Cockrell was playing golf when his calf started to tighten up. Unable to move his lower leg and foot, Cockrell was forced to practically drag his leg up the hill and off of the golf green. Despite the discomfort, he didn't take the symptoms very seriously and assumed this strange occurrence to be a one-time instance simply related to aging. But the pain
by DR. BARRY WEINSTOCK |
FHA PushingLegislature to Revisit PIP
Florida hospital leaders are frustrated that the Florida Legislature did not reach an agreement on the continuation of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance during its regular session.
The hospital community is asking the legislative leadership and Gov. Charlie Crist to add PIP to the June special session — a tall order since the session is dedicated to property tax insurance, the legislature's dominant issue this year.
DEBORAH BALSHEM |
Grand Rounds June
Blue Cross Plans Settle 900,000 Doctors' Lawsuit For $128 Million
A group of managed health care companies have reached a $128 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed by about 900,000 physicians over alleged unfair business practices that denied and delayed payments for medical care, both sides confirmed Friday.
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Happy Anniversary to Us!
Welcome to a milestone issue of Orlando Medical News. That's right, we're one-year-old in June, but our parent company, Medical News, Inc. has had a presence in Florida for much longer.
Talks with Medical News CEO Mac Hardcastle about expanding into the Orlando and Tampa Bay markets started in early 2006. The decision to start publishing was made shortly thereafter, and the first issue rolled off the presses in June 2006.
But why move into Florida?
Medical News is an established publishing house in Nashville, Tenn., and now has 10 papers scattered throughout the South. Florida was a logical step southeast.
JOHN KELLY |
Nemours Awaits Word on Children's Hospital Ruling
On April 18, Nemours Foundation filed its third Certificate of Need (CON) application proposing to build an additional children's hospital for the Orlando area. A ruling from Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) is anticipated by the middle of June.
State law requires that a proposed hospital must receive a "certificate of need" in order to avoid duplicating medical services in an area. The Nemours Foundation has submitted two previous CON applications to build a children's hospital in the Orlando area. The applications were denied in 2006, in June and again in December. The previous applications proposed a hospital site in the Mall at Millenia area.
KELLY PRICE |
Physician Spotlight: Dr. Sigfredo Aldarondo
Take a Deep Breath
Dr. Sigfredo Aldarondo may have received the Don Quixote Award, but he is not a man who tilts at windmills or looks at the world with foolish eyes.
He is, however, someone who is willing to look ahead and recognize things of value, and do something to make them happen. This is particularly true about his volunteer work with the Catholic Diocese of Orlando and its mission work providing healthcare to indigent peoples in a sister diocese in the Dominican Republic.
KELLY PRICE |
Ready, Set – UCF Med School on Go
Something's going on in the Lake Nona area.
Giant earthmoving vehicles lumber across the terrain, piles of brushy shrubs have been yanked out of the earth, and fences are starting to snake around the edges of the cleared land. Surveyors have begun mapping the lay of the land.
Work has started on the first stage of the anticipated "Medical City" complex in southwest Orlando that will be home to a medical college, a veterans' hospital and an internationally acclaimed research institute.
KELLY PRICE |
Understanding New Imaging Options for Improved Long-Term Patient Care
Bone health is important to the overall health and quality of life for all Americans. Testament to this is the fact that this past May was deemed National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month.
Healthy bones provide the body with a frame that allows for mobility and for protection against injury. Bones serve as a storehouse for minerals that are vital to the functioning of many other life-sustaining systems in the body. Unhealthy bones, however, perform poorly in executing these functions and can lead to debilitating fractures.
DR. RICHARD C. SMITH |
When Time is Tissue
Code Gray Teams Fight Strokes in the ER
The numbers are frightening: approximately 700,000 Americans will suffer a stroke this year. That's one stroke every 45 seconds. Every three minutes, one of those patients will die, making stroke the third-most prevalent cause of death in the United States. And the so-called alleged lucky ones — patients who survive - will become members of the group that is the nation's number-one cause of disability.
J.L. WEBB |
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