While corporate General Electric announced an increase in 2011 second quarter operating earnings from continuing operations of $3.7 billion, up 18 percent from the second quarter of 2010, the revenues were $35.6 billion for the quarter, down 4 percent from a year ago. However, GE Healthcare’s segment revenues increased 10 percent.

“With our fifth-consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings growth, we continue to execute in a volatile environment,” GE's Chair and CEO Jeff Immelt said. “We posted solid overall operating earnings growth of 18 percent, with strong contributions from GE Capital, Healthcare, Transportation, Aviation and Oil & Gas. GE’s backlog grew to a record high of $189 billion.”

Specifically, GE Healthcare posted $4.5 billion in the second quarter of 2011, compared with $4.1 billion in the second quarter of 2010. Likewise, in the same quarter-over-quarter period, the healthcare segment profits increased 8 percent—$711 million versus $661 million. During his presentation, Immelt mentioned the “strong core growth and additional investment in growth platforms” related to the segment profits.

For GE Healthcare, equipment orders increased 9 percent to $2.6 billion and services orders increased 10 percent to $2.1 billion—compared with 2010 second quarter.