Phillip W. Carmody, MD

The radiologists are frustrated and do not understand why things just don't seem to be getting done anymore. After their long-time manager retired, they decided to hire someone with an MBA, but he has been struggling to understand radiology operations. His mistakes have not been too damaging-so far-but he seems overwhelmed and unhappy. How can the job be that difficult?

Volume at the imaging center has improved over the past year, although revenue has remained flat. The billing manager explains that the center faces personnel problems: Employees have refused to take the necessary steps to ensure that complete and accurate information is captured for each patient. As a result, an increasing number of claims are being denied, and the billing staff is doing extra work to correct and refile these procedures. It seemed that terminating an employee for her bad attitude might help, but the current staff is falling into the same patterns. The billing manager suggests hiring an additional employee for insurance claims follow-up.