Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why get tested in a physician’s office or in a clinic, instead of going to the hospital?

A. Because it is much easier to go to the physician’s office or in a clinic and much less time required to do check in and go to the right departments and get the test done without waiting in the hospital setting. Multiple tests can be done without having to go to multiple departments. For example if you needed a carotid duplex and Echocardiogram at the hospital you would have to go to two departments, the Vascular Lab and the Cardiac Echo Lab. In a physician’s office or in a clinic, the tests are done together, plus the results of the tests stay right with your physician and your medical record, where the physician and patient can access them more easily than at the hospital. Tests can also be repeated and compared as necessary with better reproducibility than typical hospital settings.

Q. How long do the tests take and is there any special preparation?

A. It’s much easier to go to a physician’s office or to a clinic because checking in is faster and clinics tend to have much shorter wait times than hospital imaging departments. In addition, multiple tests can be done without having to go to multiple departments.

Q. Are the tests expensive and are they covered by insurance?

A. There is no part of medicine that can be classified as “not expensive”, especially with any type of medical imaging. Luckily, these tests are less expensive at a physician’s office or a clinic than at a hospital, and they are, historically, mostly or entirely covered by many insurance plans. The surest way to know what coverage is available to you is to contact your physician and your insurance company.

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