"Sometimes we even train their staff and they retain complete control," says Soffer.

A major drain on many nuclear stress test labs is inefficient scheduling. If a patient doesn't show up the practice suffers and more so for nuclear stress tests than for many other procedures.


"Scheduling is a big issue," says Soffer. "On average two out of 10 people will not show up for their exam. The radioisotope decays and the practice takes up the bill."

UND has come up with administrative best practices that help labs improve communication with patients thereby encouraging appointment attendance.

Serious Cost Savings

Soffer estimates that facilities' cost per cardiac stress test ranges between $200 - $500 depending on the practice. The average cardiologist performs about 1,000 tests annually. UND's customers often save enough money to invest in state-of-the-art equipment upgrades or they open satellite centers that provide additional revenue.

"We would get calls from various practices saying 'we did so well this year that we want to open another office,'" says Soffer. "This has led to exponential growth for UND."

As it stands, UND has a 100 percent customer retention rate and an impeccable retention rate for their staff, including technicians.

Moving Away From Mobile

Mobile stress test labs can charge upwards of $2,500 a day. That's about $410 per test at a maximum of six tests per day, according to UND. Many health care centers, especially those in rural communities, do not have the volume to warrant the cost of calling in a mobile unit multiple times each month. UND can come into a hospital and set up a dedicated CompleteLab and that practice can start performing as many as 40 tests per month with full ownership of all the equipment.

This is a growing market in rural areas, where practices have to refer patients out to more urban centers or local facilities that own equipment. Hospitals lose money when patients who are referred elsewhere choose to leave altogether, which is often the case, says Soffer. Setting up a dedicated stress test lab could provide a new source of revenue for rural hospitals.

On the Horizon

There is no end in sight to UND's success, especially if nuclear stress tests are sheltered from upcoming health reform, which Soffer suggests. All this groundwork has led to some new developments for the company, including movement into ultrasound labs. Another possibility for the company's CompleteLab package is the addition of positron emission tomography (PET).

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