You might think that it's fairly easy for a medical facility to acquire the technology that it needs in order to be able to best serve its patients. Sure, the equipment is expensive. But once the facility locates the funding, they just order the machine and it arrives, right?
Wrong.
In the region of Charlotte, North Carolina, two medical facilities are in tight competition to get approval to purchase MRI equipment. The equipment, which is needed for scanning the body to improve preventive health measures in the area, will likely only be approved for one of the facilities.
This is due to a law in the area which mandates that medical facilities file "certificate-of-need" applications with the state prior to purchasing any new equipment. The state must approve the equipment or purchase is not allowed. Approval is due in part to whether or not other facilities in the region have similar equipment. The purpose of this is to decrease overall health care costs by avoiding equipment duplication within a single region.
So if you're ever wondering why you have to drive out of your way to find a doctor who can perform the MRI that you need, that could be one of the reasons.
