| |
|
|
|
For Immediate Release
October 30, 2002
MRI FACILITY HAS INTERNATIONAL APPEAL
By Annemarie Kropf
Journal Staff
OGDENSBURG — Long waiting lists for magnetic-resonance-imaging [MRI] facilities in Canada prompted one man to start a business across the border. Syed Haider, chief executive officer of Quinte MRI, Inc., opened Thousand Island MRI in Ogdensburg to cater to anxious Canadians.
“Business has been just great,” Haider says from his Belleville, Ontario office. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”
In Canada, health care comes under provincial jurisdiction. “Each province decides [whether it] will have a private MRI facility,” Haider explains. Canada has 100 MRI facilities in the entire country. New York State alone has approximately 160 to 200 MRI facilities, Haider notes. “Canada is still pretty backward when it comes to MRIs,” he says. “New York State has twice as many MRI facilities as in the whole of Canada.”
Because of the lack of MRI facilities, waiting lists in Canada are six to nine months long. At Thousand Island MRI, patients can be accommodated within 24 to 48 hours, Haider says. This accessibility has made all the difference in getting clients. Two weeks ago, a Canadian couple from Windsor made the 10-hour drive to Thousand Island MRI. Haider asked them why they didn’t just cross the border and get an MRI in Detroit. The couple replied that the waiting list there was one week to two weeks. At Thousand Island MRI, however, patients are accommodated within one to two days. “People are used to getting things when they want them,” Haider says.
Thousand Island MRI is able to accommodate patients in such a short time because it is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week-facility. “It’s a big selling point,” Haider says. “We pay our technologists very well for it.” The MRI facility employs three people, two of whom are MR technologists; the third is a technical business consultant. The employees work 12-hour shifts, six days per week, but are also on call all the time.
Before opening in May 2002, Quinte MRI, Inc. signed a nearly-six-year contract with Claxton-Hepburn Medical Centre in Ogdensburg. As part of the agreement, which includes being located on the hospital campus, the medical center promises to send all its patients to Thousand Island MRI. The hospital does all the billing, and Thousand Island MRI arranges the use of the facility and the technologists.
Haider chose the name, Thousand Island MRI, because of its recognition value. “Because we’re a Canadian company, we wanted to market it at both sides of the border,” he says. “People seem to relate to [the name].”
Each week, approximately 50 to 60 clients come to the 1,000-square-foot facility. About half the clients are from the United States and half are Canadian. While insurance companies may help U.S. residents pay for the MRI, Canadians are not so lucky. Provincial health plans will cover the cost of a Canadian MRI, but Canadians must pay out-of-pocket in the United States. The cost of the MRI ranges from $500 without contrast dye to $575 with contrast dye. Contrast dye is used to highlight parts of the MRI that are hard to see.
There is one MRI machine in the facility, and Haider says that, because of its state-of-the-art technology, an MRI lasts only 10 minutes. In the past, MRIs took 30 to 40 minutes.
Haider started Quinte MRI, Inc. in Ontario in November 1998. He opened a subsidiary of the company, Quinte MRI USA, LLC, in St. Louis in 2000. Each company generates $1 million in annual revenue.
Haider, 62, is a former physics teacher. Before he retired in 2000, he was actively exploring other options and decided to go into business in the medical field. “I had zero business experience,” he says. “I wanted to try something which I was trained for.” Originally from Pakistan, Haider earned his master’s degree at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wales in Cardiff. He met his wife in England, and they decided to move to Canada.
“Our problem right now is that we are a small, teeny-weeny company that’s short of human resources and capital,” Haider says. “Our dream is that we would like to move forward slowly but surely.
“We’ve been absolutely delighted with the way things are going in the United States,” he continues. “We hope to expand even more in New York State. It looks very promising."
This article appeared in the N.Y Business Journal.
Thank you to Annemarie Kropf for all of her work on the story.
Contact Kropf at akropf@cnybj.com
|
|
|
