by
John W. Mitchell, Senior Correspondent | June 08, 2020
From the May 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Another company currently seeing a high demand from clients is Kelly Mobile Services, which provides nationwide transport and other services for mobile imaging providers. The company also offers in-house imaging system transportation and rigging (MR, CT, PET/CT, X-Ray and cardiac cath labs) across the western half of the U.S.
“We are doing our best to keep customer rates low, but retaining quality drivers and keeping a fair profit margin is resulting in higher transport costs,” Taylor Kelly, vice president of Kelly Mobile Services, told HCB News. “We also have to account for higher costs due to operating emission-compliant trucks and increasing insurance rates.”
He recounted one assignment in which they were hired to transport MR trailers to Kodiak, Alaska, in winter. Once they arrived in Anchorage, the ferry scheduled to take them across the water to Kodiak canceled that leg of the trip. With the MR magnet running on generator power, they had to scramble to find a plug-in power source. Fortunately, they had a client hospital in Anchorage and were able to plug in for five days. Kelly hired a landing craft to move the unit between Homer and Kodiak. All told, the transport took five weeks to complete, which included extracting the old MR unit and hauling it back to California.
Mobile Imaging providers react to emergent imaging needs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic
Two sources report that they are responding to rapidly changing demands of their hospital clients during the COVID-19 disaster.
A Kelly Mobile trailer on the road.
“Coronavirus has impacted our business, like all businesses, at this time,” said Hoover with DMS Health Technologies (Digirad). “Many facilities are looking into using a mobile provider to take their radiology department outside of the healthcare facility to provide for the imaging needs of the community, while limiting potential exposures within the healthcare setting.”
