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Frequently Asked Questions

Some frequently asked questions that you may have relating to medical imaging in general.

If you don’t find the information you need, please feel free to contact us.

A sonographer performs an ultrasound scan on a patient’s knee in a clinical examination room.

Appointments

Do I need a doctor’s referral to have an x-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, mammography or nuclear medicine exam?

Yes! Apex Radiology requires a referral from an authorised referrer before we can perform any medical imaging study.

Authorised referrers are usually doctors or dentist, but chiropractors, osteopaths physiotherapists and podiatrists are authorised to send patients for certain examinations.

Yes we accept any radiology referral. Unless the referral is specifically addressed to an individual doctor Apex Radiology will accept a referral for medical imaging at any practice.

For general and dental x-rays you do not need to make an appointment, but will need to schedule an appointment for all other examinations such as CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, mammogram and ultrasound.

You can request an appointment online or call our Booking Centre.

If you have an Apex Radiology referral, the practice locations, opening times and phone numbers are printed on the referral, along with the examinations available at each practice.

Simply phone the practice that’s most convenient for you and one of our staff will schedule a time that suits you and provide further details about your examination, parking, directions and any costs.

General and dental x-rays do not require an appointment. You can request an appointment online or call our Booking Centre.

One of our specialist doctors called radiologists will interpret your imaging study and provide your doctor or health professional with a comprehensive report about the findings.

You will need to return to the person who referred you to discuss your results.

Processing and reporting of your images could take up to three to five working days.

On the 1st July 2016, My Health Record was introduced by the Australian Government. This brings together health information from you, your healthcare providers and Medicare so patients can keep all of their health records in a central location.

If you have a scan with Apex Radiology (and you haven’t already opted out of the My Health Record) your scan will be forwarded to your account. If you don’t want this to occur, please notify one of our staff.

Any issues about My Health Record you’ll need to contact the My Health Record helpline direct on 1800 723 471. For more information, you can visit the My Health Record website.

Safety

Are X-rays safe?

X-ray images enable doctors to look inside the body to diagnose injury or illness.

Different tissues within the body attenuate the beam of X-rays to different degrees. When clinically warranted, the benefits of having an X-ray test outweigh any harm from a small dose of radiation.

During a person’s lifetime the effect of each radiation dose is cumulative and so doctors consider the benefit of each X-ray test beforehand.

If you have any concerns about the amount of radiation you’ve been exposed to you should discuss this with your doctor.

If you are pregnant or suspect you might be pregnant be sure to tell your doctor before having any X-ray testing.

Also advise Apex Radiology staff before your x-ray test.

There are risks to a developing child, especially during the first three months of pregnancy.

If your doctor believes the benefits of the test outweigh any risk an X-ray can be performed when you are pregnant.

If the area of interest is not your abdomen or pelvis a lead gown can be placed over your abdomen to reduce the risk to the foetus.

Radiology contrast agents are among the safest pharmaceutical products available today.

Radiology contrast agents permit visualisation of internal structure or organs that would not otherwise be demonstrable.

Successive developments in pharmacology mean that today’s contrast agents are well tolerated.

X-ray contrast is cleared from the system rapidly and naturally, usually with no adverse effects at all. Some people are allergic to iodine.

Before a person is given any contrast agent he or she is asked a series of relevant questions to determine the likelihood of an adverse reaction.

Most contrast media reactions are minor and need no treatment.

Moderate reactions are encountered rarely (about 1%) and severe reactions very rarely (about 0.1%), but all moderate and severe reactions require adequate treatment.

Our staff are trained to promptly treat any adverse reactions, like any other anaphylactic reactions, with intramuscular adrenaline.

Most contrast agents are water-soluble solutions, but barium studies use a barium sulphate suspension to outline the intestine because of better coating properties.

The choice of contrast agent is the radiologist’s responsibility.

A few of the most common radiology examinations that use contrast agents are angiography, CT, IVP, interventional tests, barium studies and MRI.

Although orthopaedic and dental implants are metal, they are not magnetic (ferrous). These include hip and knee replacements, plates, screws, rods to treat limb fractures, and dental fillings. While non-ferrous surgical metal can distort an MRI image, the majority are safe within the strong magnetic field of an MRI machine.

Anyone having an MRI must answer a series of questions to determine the likelihood of any safety problems. The types of metal implants that could be affected by the strong magnetic forces consist of:

  • Pacemakers or heart valves
  • Metal implants in a patient’s brain
  • Metal implants in a patient’s eye or ears
  • Infusion catheters

You can discuss any concerns you have with the radiographer before the MRI test.

Billing

Do I need to pay for my appointment?

Apex Radiology is a private diagnostic imaging practice. As a private provider, you may incur a gap payment for your examination.

Full payment is required on the day of your exam. We accept cash, cheques and eftpos.

If you have any queries, please discuss with one of our reception staff.

Hospital Inpatient

If you are admitted to hospital, to obtain direct admission and choice of doctor that you wish, you may have chosen to be treated as a private patient.
During your treatment as a hospital inpatient, your doctor may request that you have some medical imaging investigations (e.g. X-rays, ultrasound, CT scan).

Apex Radiology is a private radiology practice that is contracted to provide these services to the hospital. As such we charge private fees appropriate to the service provided by our practice.

You will not have a co-payment cost when admitted under:

  • HBF
  • Department of Veteran Affairs
  • Health department of WA
  • Compensable third party insurer

You will have a co-payment if admitted under:

  • Private health funds other than HBF (Medicare will pay 75% of the schedule fee and your health fund will pay an amount, variable dependent on which fund, and the balance to be paid by you)
  • Uninsured patients (Medicare will pay 75% of the schedule fee and the balance to be paid by you)
  • Please be aware that if you are liable for a co-payment you will receive an account from Apex Radiology for services rendered by our practice during your stay in hospital.

Outpatient

If you are an Australian citizen with Medicare entitlements, there are currently no private health funds that provide payments for outpatient medical imaging services.

Some international students or residents may have health insurance entitlements that cover these services.

Please contact your health fund for more information.

If you are not eligible for cover through Medicare you will be charged a fee for services, but you will be given a quote beforehand. If you have travel insurance, check your policy to see if your medical expenses, such as radiology tests, are covered by that insurance.

Privacy

What information do we collect?

We will only collect information that is relevant to the delivery of healthcare. It is important to understand that you do not have to provide any information you do not want to, and by signing this form you are not obligated to provide any information you are not comfortable with providing. We will not actively seek the types of information outlined below but may record this information if it is relevant to your healthcare.

The types of information that may be collected where relevant include, contact details, medical history (to the extent that it is relevant), treatment preferences and family medical history (if relevant).

We do not actively seek information externally or through third parties, but “collect” the information that is provided to us by patients, their referrers and other health care organisations involved in the patient’s care.

Importantly, where any of the information types are not linked to your health care, you will not be asked to provide it, and we will not seek this information independently. If you do provide this information, we will treat it sensitively, securely and in line with Australian Privacy Legislation.

By signing our consent form, you are not obligated to provide any of information if you do not want to, (outside of minimum identifying information required to provide healthcare).

We do not share personal information with anyone outside of our organisation except in the following ways:

  • With other health care professionals and organisation involved in your health care (e.g. your referring doctor or specialist)
  • To insurers, and government health agencies as required by law.
  • Parents/guardians where appropriate (and with your permission), people with power of attorney over a patient.
  • Other health care service providers involved in your care.
  • Where required to by a court order.

We are part of the Integral Diagnostics Group which includes radiology businesses and services throughout Australia and New Zealand. Where we share information with other members of the Integral Diagnostics Group for the purposes of continual improvement, quality reviews and to ensure we are meeting our overarching governance and compliance requirements.

We do not share personal information with anyone outside of our organisation except in the following ways:

  • With other health care professionals and organisation involved in your health care (e.g. your referring doctor or specialist)
  • To insurers, and government health agencies as required by law.
  • Parents/guardians where appropriate (and with your permission), people with power of attorney over a patient.
  • Other health care service providers involved in your care.
  • Where required to by a court order.

We are part of the Integral Diagnostics Group which includes radiology businesses and services throughout Australia and New Zealand. Where we share information with other members of the Integral Diagnostics Group for the purposes of continual improvement, quality reviews and to ensure we are meeting our overarching governance and compliance requirements.

Personal information collected may also be used in the following ways (with examples):

  • Service improvement – we may review a patients file, including the types of care they received, or their experience with our admin process to improve our processes.
  • Training – we may look at patient information, clinical/non-clinical in the training and continued learning of our clinical staff (for clinical information), and non-clinical staff for nonclinical information.
  • Audits – we may audit samples of patient records and file notes periodically to ensure that processes and services are being delivered to a high quality.
  • Records management – we may look at individual records periodically to ensure that information is being stored correctly and completely.
  • Claims/insurance/investigations – if directed under law, whether at a patient’s request, or through a request such as by subpoena or by a government body with the appropriate legal authority, we may provide patient information in line with that request.
  • Research – from time to time we participate in research projects to improve diagnostic imaging practices broadly across the profession. In these cases, we may provide anonymised/de-identified patient records as part of the research project. In these cases, all research projects are vetted to ensure compliance with the privacy legislation of Australia, and that the research project has had appropriate research ethics approvals, including outlining how all parties involved will comply with the privacy requirements and keep information safe.

NOTE: Patient data will never be sold, or used for a commercial gain (e.g., unsolicited promotional messaging).

If a patient withdraws their consent after receiving care, we will still be obliged to retain that patient’s health information for 7 years in accordance with legislation and for insurance purposes.

The effect of the withdrawal of the patient’s consent is that any of the patient’s other, non-health related personal information is no longer required for the purpose it was collected for, we will delete that non-health information from our systems.

A healthcare provider must make available all information held upon request. Such as, patients may request access to their health information, and we will supply access in a timely manner.

Patient data is something we go to great lengths and cost to protect, and at IDX it is our primary focus within our security teams. We deploy multi layers of industry standard protection apparatus including segmentation and least privileged access controls wherever possible. If you would like any further information, please contact the Privacy email via the email on the consent form.

Messages with family members are limited to appointment information, and this would only occur in a scenario where the patient’s family member answers the phone. We would never provide results to a family member. Patients must opt in/out of this consent.

Billing details are limited information such as whether a patient has paid, what money is owed and due dates. We do not store patient payment details (Bank account details, credit/debit card numbers, etc.)