From the December 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Today, acquisitions are hinting at new signs of life. In May, MIR was acquired by Oxford Instruments Healthcare, and last year, Kentucky Trailer purchased Advanced Mobility, a move Bachman says gave his company the balance sheet and capacity to competitively leverage its knowledge of the industry.

In October, the newly formed Advanced Mobility by Kentucky Trailer acquired SMIT, a leading European provider of mobile medical trailers. What led to the sudden increase in market activity? Bachman calls that the million-dollar question.



Rural hospitals and the ACA
When advanced mobile imaging took off in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was driven by the expense and scarcity of CT and MR. Today, an abundance of fixed installations and an evolved refurb market have eliminated a lot of those original market drivers. In rural areas, however, a shared system can still seem like a logical solution.

Dale Hockel, chief operations officer of Alliance HealthCare, says the lower patient volume in rural communities make them an ideal candidate for shared mobile service. “This is more viable than having the system sitting around not being utilized,” he says. “I would say there has been an increase in activity from shared service providers. A few have recently bought multiples from us,” says Smith, with Medical Coaches, referencing Cleveland Clinic as a hospital system that utilizes both fixed and mobile MR systems.

There are also significant capital expense benefits to not having fixed site installations, which bring their own unique demands for space and shielding. “As an alternative, I can buy [an MR] and plug it in and turn it on and be up and running,” says Vartanian. “That’s a lot easier than building the whole room, taking delivery of the system and rigging everything in.”

“The way health care is moving, rural hospitals are taking the hardest hit in many ways,” says Juan Rocha, vice president of field operations at Shared Imaging. The company was founded in the interest of serving rural areas, but currently finds the demand for trailers to be strongest in metropolitan business. “There is some growth simply because the population has increased, but most of that takes place in cities. People are leaving rural areas for work in city centers,” says Vartanian. He speculates that the business of mobile routes has no more room to expand for shared rural services.

December 2015 Magazine

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