“As the medical community adopts a modality as being effective, reimbursements are created that pay for the services,” he says.

DMS client RaeAnn Ruff, director of radiology for Oakes Community Hospital in North Dakota, uses the company’s mobile MRI, nuclear and digital mammography units. The 25-bed critical access hospital doesn’t need the equipment onsite at all times.


“The cost of equipment is rather prohibitive for a small facility when we do fewer exams,” says Ruff. “[Mobile services] enable us to offer the service without incurring the expense.”

Ruff is unsure of the exact cost savings gleaned from using mobile services, but notes that there are significant savings, especially for mammography, because the hospital does not have to spend money on meeting the Mammography Quality Standards Act and Program requirements. That is taken care of by the mobile service provider.

“All we do is schedule patients,” she says.

But on the downside, hospitals without fixed equipment, especially MRIs, don’t have access to services whenever they want, including during emergencies, says Ruff.

“There are instances where it would be nice to have service available [immediately],” she says. “There are emergencies where, rather than send a patient out, if we had a service available when needed, that might change the direction we take with that patient.”

In order to serve underserved and uninsured women in Cincinnati, Ohio and the surrounding area, The Jewish Hospital uses its mobile digital mammography program to offer screening services.

The mobile program has two digital units, both manufactured by Hologic Inc. The program, created in 1987, switched from film to digital two years ago, says Roger Vorherr, administrative director for imaging services at the hospital.

“We have the latest and greatest technology,” he says.

“We saw the need,” says Vorherr. “Populations weren’t being served. They had to travel quite a distance for a routine mammogram.”

As the hospital’s program makes more and more stops at businesses that contract the program to screen their female employees, Vorherr anticipates that the need for mobile mammography will increase.

“We’ve got a demand we aren’t able to meet,” he says.

No strings attached
The Jewish Hospital’s mobile mammography program, in an effort to better serve rural communities, wants to install wireless features to send images efficiently. Vorherr points out that the wireless technology for images hasn’t been perfected. But future wireless improvements will allow mobile units to send images quickly, whereas now, files are so big it takes a long time and are easily interrupted.

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