Turf wars in radiology: The battle for peripheral vascular interventions

Abstract

Interventional radiologists in many hospitals are involved in confrontations with cardiologists and vascular surgeons over who should be allowed to perform percutaneous noncardiac peripheral vascular interventions. There are valid reasons why radiologists should be the ones doing these procedures: first, because in any given hospital, radiologists are generally the physicians with the best training and most experience, and second, because they are generally not in a position to self-refer and will therefore be able to help keep utilization under control. If cardiologists or vascular surgeons request vascular interventional privileges at your hospital, there are steps you can take to see if they are properly qualified. If they are granted privileges, there are other steps you can take to ensure that high standards of patient care are maintained. The authors also present some discussion of how interventional radiologists can position themselves to either compete with or collaborate with the other clinical services. Throughout any confrontations that might occur, radiologists should stress that patients undergoing these procedures deserve the best possible care, which means that they should be performed by those physicians on the hospital staff who are the most knowledgeable and the least likely to commit medical errors.