What's happening in the so-called war between out-patient radiology and "Red River"? Seems as if the imaging center wins by default. This is not an exclusively Parisian situation, but it does impact the financial health of the hospital.
Typically, studies help spread the fixed costs of a department. When the number of studies for the hospital day shift is only 50 or 60, the result is a net loss per exam. Right now, they should be coming into their heavier census period, but if out-patient studies continue to go down, that won't help them.
What is the solution? For Essent, the automatic solution is to cut staff, one of the largest costs. How does that affect the new graduates appearing in December? It can cut in several direction: Hire the top guns in the new class, paying them entry level, and raise the performance bar to the existing technologists, hoping attrition would create openings and lose some of the higher paid staff? Or not hire any FTEs (Full-Time Employees), merely keep a supply of PRNs on tap to fill the peak periods through May. Or, just cut staff.
However, the solution may be taken away from them. The new class has been working in several different clinical settings, and has seen the differences in facilities. They might opt out of the PRMC setting for other markets, should that be viable for their situation.
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