WHY CAN I BOOK SOME MEDICAL IMAGING EXAMS SOONER THAN OTHERS?

So you’ve recently visited a doctor and the doctor has ordered medical imaging for you by filling out a requisition – paperwork requesting the specific exam and explaining why it’s needed. Now it’s time to book your appointment. To do this your doctor may:

1. Fax the requisition directly to the medical imaging company, and that company will call you to arrange your appointment.
2. Give you the requisition for you to call the medical imaging company to book your appointment.

Once you’ve connected with the imaging company, they will discuss with you your preferred location and timing for your exam. However, depending on their complexity, some medical imaging exams can be booked sooner than others.

WHAT MAKES A MEDICAL IMAGING EXAM COMPLEX?

Mayfair Diagnostics has 13 clinics offering a variety of services across Calgary, as well as one each in Cochrane, Regina, and Saskatoon. We aim to provide a diverse range of convenient medical imaging services to the communities that we serve. However, there are a number of considerations that can complicate the availability of a particular exam requested by your doctor:

• Not all services are offered at every location. Pain management services are offered at four locations in Calgary, while computed tomography (CT) exams are performed at only one Mayfair Diagnostics location. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is performed at one location in Calgary, and our Regina and Saskatoon locations. Plus, specialized vascular imaging is only performed at our Vascular Lab in our Sunridge Plaza clinic. X-ray services are NOT available at our Southcentre, Sunpark, Cochrane, and Saskatoon clinics.
• Certain exams require specially trained technologists or physicians. At our Vascular Lab, our experienced vascular team includes sub-specialized vascular interventional radiologists, registered vascular technologists, and an accredited clinical vascular scientist with an MSc in vascular imaging. Pain management procedures and biopsies are performed by interventional radiologists working with experienced and specially trained technologists. Exercise stress testing and myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) require an internal medicine doctor be present, as well as a specially trained cardiac nuclear medicine technologist.
• Some exams require more time, so fewer can be performed in a day. Pain management spine procedures can take longer, such as epidural injections, selective nerve root block, and radiofrequency ablation. Some nuclear medicine imaging exams (MPI, bone scan) are two-part exams, which require specific scheduling arrangements. Other nuclear medicine imaging exams (HIDA) can take several hours. Exercise stress testing can take between 60-90 minutes.
• Other special considerations. Musculoskeletal (MSK) ultrasounds are performed by specialized MSK sonographers, and some MSK exams require an X-ray of the area of concern prior to the ultrasound. This allows the radiologist to correlate the soft tissue findings of the ultrasound with the bones of the joint being examined. If you need to take oral contrast prior to an MRI or CT exam, that can also add time to an exam. X-ray exams that are urgent or STAT exams may have priority over other requests. These patients may be taken first before others at the discretion of the technologist. Not all our X-ray equipment is the same, some rooms have more capabilities than others, you may have to wait for the room to open that is best suited to your needs.

Taken individually, each of the above points can complicate scheduling of your exam. It can be even more complicated when all of the above points apply to a particular exam. Please note, any exam marked urgent or STAT by your doctor will be booked immediately.

BOOKING AN IMAGING EXAM WITH MAYFAIR DIAGNOSTICS

You can visit a clinic in person to book your appointment, or you can contact the Mayfair Diagnostics Customer Contact Centre via the following options:

• By telephone: (Toll Free) 1-866-611-2665
• By email: generalbooking@radiology.ca
• Through a Contact Us form on Mayfair’s website.

When Mayfair Diagnostics patient experience coordinators contact you to book a medical imaging exam we will, first of all, confirm with you the name of your referring doctor who ordered the exam. We will need to confirm some of your personal details to ensure they match what is on the requisition, but we will NOT ask for any financial information, and any personal details will be taken after we have confirmed your referring doctor with you.

Please note that X-ray services are walk-in only. Be sure to check our X-ray services page for a list of locations that offer these exams.

When you are speaking with one of Mayfair’s patient experience coordinators, you will need to provide your patient information, your referring doctor’s information, exams ordered, relevant medical history and any other information your doctor has included on the requisition. You may also be asked about special considerations and other pertinent information related to the exam.

Once we have all the information we need, the booking coordinator can discuss with you available times and locations for your exams. They will then explain any preparation instructions, driving directions, parking information, etc.

If you have the option to email or fax your requisition prior to your appointment, that would be helpful, or you can bring it with you to your appointment. Please note that for certain types of appointments, such as vascular ultrasound, MRI, CT, etc., we will need to have received your requisition from your referring doctor before we can book your appointment.

Mayfair Diagnostics offers email and text message notifications and, if you provide your email address and cell phone number, we will send you a confirmation message about your appointment with a link to exam and clinic details, as well as a reminder message prior to your appointment.

For more information, please refer to our services page for a list of our services and the locations where they are offered.