UT Imaging – Houston To Open Outpatient Center

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has joined with a private firm to establish a freestanding outpatient diagnostic imaging center in Houston.

UT Imaging-Houston, the joint venture formed between UT Physicians, the medical practice of the UT Medical School at Houston, and Outpatient Imaging Affiliates (OIA) of Nashville, Tenn., will give the university its first ownership interest in an imaging facility.

The center will provide such services as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans when it opens later this year. The center will be located near the intersection of West Loop 610 and Bellaire Boulevard.

“This is an exciting development. UT Imaging-Houston will expand our faculty’s scope of clinical practice and make their specialized expertise more widely available to Houstonarea patients and physicians,” said Susan John, M.D., head of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging at the Medical School. “The imaging center also will help us better serve our patients and fellow physicians in the Medical School’s clinical practice.”

OIA President and CEO Frank Kyle said, “Our company is very pleased to have expanded into the Texas market with such a prestigious organization. The University of Texas Health Science Center has an established and well-earned reputation as a quality health care services provider. The university’s radiology department’s sub-specialty expertise is highly regarded in the market, and OIA is extremely excited about the prospects for UT Imaging’s ability to deliver stateof-the-art imaging services to the greater Houston area.”

OIA has extensive experience operating outpatient diagnostic imaging centers in partnership with academic medical centers and has great expertise in marketing and developing those centers, said Kevin Dillon, the health science center’s executive vice president for finance and business affairs.

“We will operate a high-quality, patient-oriented center that will attract not just UT Physicians’ patients, but also referrals from other clinicians in the community,” Dillon said.

UT Physicians operates more than 30 clinics in the Houston area, including many concentrated in the Texas Medical Center and community locations in the Galleria area, Katy, Sugar Land, Friendswood, northwest Houston and Pearland.

UT Physicians has long provided radiological services – reading and interpreting MRIs and CT scans – under contract to other imaging centers and will continue to do so, John and Dillon said.

Majority ownership of the joint venture with OIA will give the university a greater share of the center’s profits. “The positive margin from UT Imaging-Houston will help UT Medical School support its core missions of patient care, research and education,” Dillon said. Dillon and Andrew Casas, assistant vice president for business operations and clinical affairs, negotiated the agreement with OIA, which was announced in May

Outpatient Imaging Affiliates partners with local health-care providers, including academic medical schools, hospital medical centers, and radiology practices to develop and manage high-technology outpatient diagnostic imaging and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) centers. OIA has established relationships with leading health-care providers such as University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson University and Deaconess Associations. OIA has joint venture operations in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

By Scott Merville, Public Affairs