For Shared Medical Services Inc., a Wisconsin-based mobile service provider, business is increasing. In fact, the company is expanding and adding new equipment, says Paul Zahn, the director of sales and marketing. The company added digital mammography to its mobile unit about six months ago.

The mobile service division of DMS Health Technologies remains steady, says the company’s executive vice president of operations, Douglas Holmberg. In fact, the Fargo, N.D.-based company’s mobile division has a focus on interim solutions, largely for hospitals experiencing backlog, natural disaster or construction.


“We have a dedicated fleet that continues to service hospitals to supply those [construction] needs,” says Holmberg. “Business has been steady.”

For one company in New York, success has been found overseas.

Oneonta, N.Y.-based Medical Coaches, which provides MRI, PET/CT, CT, mammography and some PET services, has turned to the international market to increase sales, which has worked very well, says the company’s CEO Geoff Smith. He notes that high-tech scanning, such as MRI and PET/CT, for mobile has decreased in the U.S. market.

“We saw this coming,” he says. “We saw the downturn and pursued old contacts. They were very receptive.”

Growth ahead?
There are shifts on the horizon for the mobile service provider industry that could help business: health care reform, which will add some 32 million Americans to health care plans, coupled with smaller clinics closing due to financial hardships, may force providers to add mobile units to service patients.

“I have a belief that we could be affected positively [by health care reform],” says Holmberg, “if indeed, legislation goes through as it has been written.”

With regard to utilization rates, which are now up to 75 percent, explains Holmberg, mobile may be the better option.

“With reimbursement based on those utilization rates, if that’s the case, mobile services make a lot of sense,” he says. “If I’m reimbursed based on using this piece of equipment 75 percent of the time, but I am only using it 40 percent of the time, it’s very hard to make that profitable. If, on the other hand, I can have mobile services two or three days a week and keep that utilization [rate] higher, everyone benefits.”

Holmberg also anticipates an uptick in business as more individuals gain health coverage.

“It absolutely makes sense that as individuals gain coverage, imaging services will increase,” he says.

“While many hospitals are purchasing devices that previously were provided by mobile service companies, the industry is [still] expanding through new construction to accommodate the huge baby-boomer [population],” said A.S. Kent, of HealthStar Laser Services Inc. in a DOTmed News survey. “The future for mobile service providers looks good for the next 10 to 20 years,” Kent said.

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