Business Spotlight: Ultrasound Services On the Go

When Kathy Rogers began asking whether mobile ultrasound service existed five years ago, the surprising answer presented a business opportunity.  

After learning that ultrasound service required patients to go to a hospital or medical care center, Rogers launched Tri-Lakes Mobile Ultrasound in 2005 in Hollister.

“I just saw a need. There were people going out into the nursing homes to do X-rays, but no one did ultrasounds,” Rogers says. “It’s just convenient for the patients. It can be done right there in the bed. I was working in a hospital where they would bring them in, and it was just really hard on the patients.”

Rogers worked for 11 years as an X-ray technician and for 24 years as an ultrasound technician – most recently at Skaggs Community Health Center in Branson – before striking out on her own as a mobile ultrasound provider.

An advantage of mobile ultrasound services is that patients, especially the elderly, don’t have to be jostled and transported to a hospital for ultrasound work.

Tri-Lakes Mobile Ultrasound uses portable machines – about the size of a suitcase – to provide ultrasound services to patients within a 100-mile area of its 3040 W. Republic Road office. The company, which employes seven, relocated to southwest Springfield from Nixa in early November.

Ultrasound is the use of cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. It often is associated with monitoring the health of a baby inside an expectant  mother, but it can be used in several other areas of the body.

Rogers is registered by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies as a diagnostic medical sonographer, a vascular technologist and a diagnostic cardiac sonographer.

About 50 percent of her ultrasound work is cardio-related and 25 percent is in vascular services. Other services are abdominal, pelvic, neurological, breast and obstetric/gynecological ultrasounds.

“Most of our technicians are registered in every aspect of the body. You really can do ultrasound on the entire body,” says Kylie Rogers, marketing director and the owners’ daughter. Kathy Rogers’ husband, Mark, is vice-president and co-owner of the company.

The company provides ultrasound services to patients in nursing homes, independent living and assisted living facilities, doctors’ offices and at-home patients using hospice services.
Skilled nursing facility Springfield Rehabilitation & Health Care is a five-year client and one of Tri-Lakes Mobile’s largest customers.

“It keeps (patients) from having to go out and be transported to an off-site place, which improves quality of life,” says Russ Lawler, the facility’s director of patient services.

Lawler says the center’s ultrasound service needs vary depending on the patient census. He might call in Tri-Lakes Mobile technicians five times a week or as seldom as three times a month.

“They enhance quality of care both for residents and the staff,” Lawler says. “It’s a cost-effective thing to keep (patients) in my building. (Tri-Lakes Mobile) sees all payment sources here whether it be private pay, Medicare or Medicaid, or managed. It’s a cost-effective venture.”

Tri-Lakes’ ultrasound costs vary greatly, based on the type of service provided, Rogers says. She estimates that about 80 percent of the company’s annual revenues, which she declined to disclose, come from Medicare and Medicaid.[[In-content Ad]]