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Teleradiology company NightRays PA willprovide full-service support to more than 40 acuter care facilities in Oklahomas and Arkansas and 40 to 50 facilities in Pennsylvania througn agreements inked with , an Irving-based network of more than 1,409 hospitals, imaging centers and other health care providers. Terms of the agreemen were not disclosed. NightRays, a privatel y held company that was founded in has seen 33 percenrt growth in the number of new client contractsw in the first halfof 2008, according to Dr.
Greg co-founder and CEO of Rose says the company has been contactefd by severalof VHA’s 15 otheer regions and expects to be announcingh more deals with that network in the near future. staff of licensed radiologists reads scans and provide reports tomedical facilities, physicians and imagingb centers during the day and night and servews health care providers in remote areaz where radiologists are not always Rose formed the virtual company with a groupo of professionals including radiologists and technologists who work from thei r homes in cities around Texas well as some in other Rose and the company’s chief financiapl officer and controller work from office space in Rose’s Bellaires home.
NightRays’ client list has grown from two hospitals to more than 70 and the company now has patents pendingf on 27 advances in teleradiology technology and atracking system. Just a few years ago, Rose radiologists had to be on-site becauses they were reading film. But with the Internet and digital radiology, “it became clear that this informatiojn couldbe anywhere,” he says. Added to those technological developments was a growingh volume of orders for radiological tests togethe r with a declining number of radiologists and a growingg expectation by radiologists for betterwork hours. So NightRayas began by offering radiologyhreadings after-hours. In 2006, the U.S.
night interpretation market was estimatexdat $750 million, with a 40 perceny to 50 percent market penetration, according to a repor t in trade publication Radiologyu Rewards. But the nighttime market was expected to grow at an annualp rate of about 11 percentf and soonbecome saturated, with teleradiology companiew already turning their focus to the much largert daytime market — $14 billiomn by one industry estimate. According to Radiology Rewards, teleradiology companieds can provide nighttime readings for less than the cost of a hospita keeping a radiologiston duty. And during the day, theswe companies are offering subspecialty readings and handlinyoverflow workloads.
Indeed, NightRays has been expandinfg itsservice coverage. The company now employs 17 after-hours radiologists and 16 durinfgthe day. The firm’s radiologist are licensed in 25 states. “We are fillinfg our book of business,” Rose says. “We keep getting more contracts and more radiologistsz with many subspecialties so we can extenrd these services into underserved In theHouston area, NightRays serves a grouo of hospitals that includes , , , and , as well as severalp smaller facilities.
Park Plaza Hospital contracted with NightRays about two years ago to provide preliminary interpretationsof X-rays and CT scans at “After-hours work has changed exponentially since I starteed 20 years ago,” says Dr. Robert a radiologist at Park Plaza. “It’s almosg nonstop now. To staff for that, we woul d have to have a numberd of people cycling on and off duty allnight long. It’s becausse of the way medicineis changing. Everything is done immediately now.” NightRays is one of aboutt 26 teleradiology companies operatingin 2008, up from 17 threw years ago, according to a survey that Rose was askee to conduct for trade publicatiobn .
Most of these companies are and many are getting acquired by public teleradiology Among the largest public playersare Idaho-basedc , Virtual Radiologic Consultants of . What remains to be sorterd out are a number ofregulatory issues, accordinb to the , which has convened a task forcde on teleradiology. “The teleradiology arena offers littlr precedent in the formof statutes, regulations or judiciaol decision,” an ACR bulletin reports.
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