GE Healthcare Imaging to Cut Costs, Jobs

General Electric’s diagnostic unit, which manufactures MRIs, will cut costs and slash jobs, according to Reuters.

Mark Vachon, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare
Global Diagnostic Imaging business, said sales of big-ticket
Equipment is expected to dip drastically in the United States in 2009.
“There’s no question that, given this market, we’re going to get much tighter on costs,” Vachon said. He wouldn’t give specifics on cost-cutting measures or job reductions.

A report published last month by the American Hospital Association said 45 percent of U.S. hospitals surveyed said they are delaying purchases of clinical technology or equipment, and 39 percent are putting off investments in new information technology.

The Wisconsin-based business unit, employs about 7,000
people. Its technologies include X-ray, digital mammography, computed tomography known as CT, magnetic resonance and molecular imaging.

Sales in the United States have dropped as cash-strapped hospitals clamp down on capital projects.

The price tag for a MRI or a CT scanner could range from $500,000 to $2 million.