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Dayton Business Journal, October 20, 2006
Vanguard Imaging to open five Dayton radiology.
By Tracy Kershaw-Staley, DBJ Staff Reporter
Vanguard Imaging Partners, LLC, a new radiology group, plans to open five imaging centers from Lebanon to Huber Heights.
The company opened its first center in Beavercreek in July and will open two others in Huber Heights and Lebanon before the end of the year. Centers in Springboro and Middletown are scheduled for February and early summer, respectively. They also are talking about acquiring two other centers. Vanguard is searching for about 45 workers to staff the first four offices and will recruit additional workers for its Middletown office this spring.
The firm is co-owned by a group of about 30 local radiologists and Premier Health Partners. It’s led by Joe Brywczynski, a former vice president at Good Samaritan Hospital. Premier owns Miami Valley, Good Samaritan and Middletown Regional hospitals.
Brywczynski would not disclose what share of the business Premier owns or how much it will cost to build out the new centers. Opening a full-service center can cost millions of dollars, according to area doctors.
The centers will offer varying levels of imaging, such as X-ray, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, commonly known as MRI. Radiologists specialize in using equipment such as X-Ray and MRIs to use imaging to create and interpret pictures of areas inside the body to detect various ailments.
Brywczynski said the company will help its radiologists recruit and retain workers because it gives them more money and resources.
One of those resources is technology. The Lebanon office, scheduled to open in December, will offer an open MRI, which is preferred by many patients who feel claustrophobic inside the tunnel-like closed versions. The 90,000-pound open MRI was delivered Oct. 17 to the Lebanon office on Columbus Avenue near state Route 48. The Beavercreek office also has an open MRI.
The Vanguard centers are the latest in a spate of new imaging centers in the Dayton area over the past few years.
Brywczynski said Vanguard is likely to continue to open centers after its first five are running. Nationally, the imaging market is growing 9 to 12 percent and with an aging population, the growth is expected to continue, he said.
New technology and increased demand for imaging has led to the boom, said Dr. Ronald Fadell, a radiologist and president of Kettering Radiologist Imaging Centers, which has offices in Kettering and Miamisburg.
The various centers across the Dayton area are owned by radiologists, hospitals, business investors and non-radiologist physicians. Fadell said the area is reaching a point of saturation.
“When I first came to town there was really only one other competing center,” said Fadell, who has been in Dayton since 1991. “Now I can’t even count them all.”
Brywczynski said Vanguard’s market research showed a growing need for imaging services.
“Our hope here is we become the ambulatory imaging company providing services where those services are needed,” he said.
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