by
Nancy Ryerson, Staff Writer | December 31, 2013
From the December 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“We have a specialist that works specifically on image transfer and data transfer for mobiles,” says Buchholz. “We’ve come a long way in that regard, and obviously security is a big issue that we’ve worked with.”
Trailer companies are also perfectly comfortable navigating the various rules and regulations that accompany patient data, including HIPAA.
Ad Statistics
Times Displayed: 109579
Times Visited: 6641 MIT labs, experts in Multi-Vendor component level repair of: MRI Coils, RF amplifiers, Gradient Amplifiers Contrast Media Injectors. System repairs, sub-assembly repairs, component level repairs, refurbish/calibrate. info@mitlabsusa.com/+1 (305) 470-8013
“We utilize a business associates’ agreement with all of the hospitals we engage with. It’s probably five pages long and filled with the dos and the don’t for patient data,” says John Vartanian, president of Medical Imaging Resources, Inc. “Whenever we send a vendor on to do a new work, even if we send someone to do the HVAC system, that vendor still signs the BAA agreement saying that if they notice any problems with patient data security they’re to report it.”
On the low-tech side, site planning is a problem that never gets old. In general, be sure to leave enough space for the large trailers to park, and for the sake of patient comfort, try to keep the trailer as close to the hospital as possible.
“You don’t want to be taking someone 100 yards away from the hospital, especially when the weather is terrible or cold. They try to work it out so they go right from the door into the patient lift,” says MPX’s Dishman.
New modalities on the move
Are you curious about how your facility’s upgrades compare to the national trends? Mobile companies say that PET/CT has been their most popular trailer, especially in urban areas.
“You’re really seeing more of the urban community hospitals looking to have PET/CT as a service where they haven’t had it before,” says Shared Imaging’s Siebs. “The volume on the PET/CT has been picking up as far as the number of scans, so we really have great adoption.”
PET/CT is expected to grow by 22 percent over the next five years and by 55 percent over the next 10 years, according to a report from Technology Insights. MR and digital mammography have also continued to grow on the mobile side, says Shared Medical Services’ Buchholz.
Modular Devices’ Mark Koers the first company to offer mobile cath/angio labs, says that his company’s signature item has seen a bit of a decline in favor of newer rooms, such as electrophysiology rooms, which are better suited to the company’s modular solutions because they require more space.
“For EP and peripheral vascular procedures, you need to have an anesthesiologist in the room and some more involved equipment, so the modular labs lend themselves much better to those kinds of procedures,” says Koers.
Besides keeping services going when a new install is taking place, mobiles and modular solutions can also be used to test the waters with a new modality before making a large purchase.
