If you value the local hardware store, the next one you value is likely to look pretty much the same. But, if it’s a diagnostic imaging center, the differences between one facility and another, or one market and another, can be quite substantial. This is due to a number of variables in imaging center content and local-area competitive influences on the business, according to Douglas Smith (Phase 4 Radiology Business Strategies LLC), the author of a chapter on imaging centers in the BVR Guide to Ancillary Healthcare Services Valuation. He will conduct a webinar today, January 12, on valuing imaging centers.

There have been many changes to the healthcare landscape that impact valuation, such as referral patterns. For example, upon review of historical referring physician metrics, the valuation expert learns that material numbers of referrals to the subject entity have come from private-practice physicians who have recently become employees of a hospital with its own imaging centers. The expert would have to assess to what degree, if any, historical referrals to the subject entity will continue in the future.