Patient Inquiry About Futura Health Screening Services
Your patients have asked, or may ask, about Futura Health Screening and if they should participate in vascular ultrasound screening. The simple answer is “yes”, as long as they have been found to be at-risk for vascular disease (see vascular disease Risk Calculator).
Futura is a division of Pacific Vascular, the largest provider of vascular screening in the Pacific Northwest. Pacific Vascular’s success is rooted in science based medicine, highly trained RVT (ARDMS) certified ultrasound technologists with all results reviewed by an RPVI certified physician.
Through our vascular screening support of local physicians, we saw a need to do a better job of finding vascular problems before they became serious health issues. We also firmly believed that screening should only be targeted on those patient populations at high-risk where screening could be both cost effective and not result in unnecessary further testing.
For example, given the fact that 80% of all strokes can be avoided if risk is known, versus the low cost of $45 for a stroke evaluation, we believed we had to do something. Consequently, we founded Futura Health Screening to provide low cost, high quality vascular screening directly to the public.
The Futura Difference
The Only ICAVL Accredited Vascular Screening Program in Washington State
Futura is one of only 39 facilities in United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico that meet or exceed the ICAVL (Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories) standards for non-invasive vascular screening. During the accreditation process, every aspect of the laboratory’s daily operations and its impact on the quality of health care provided to participants is assessed and reviewed. Futura achieved accreditation by ICAVL in the area of screening, which includes screening for carotid artery disease, peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).
Participation in the accreditation process demonstrates the laboratory’s attention to a high level of patient care and quality testing. ICAVL reported that Futura Health Screening has an “excellent screening program with good correlation efforts”.
The ICAVL is a non-profit organization established with the support of eleven medical societies including physicians, technologists and sonographers that represent medical specialties including cardiology, neurology, radiology, vascular medicine, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, internal medicine and biology.
RVT Credentialed Vascular Technologists
Our Vascular Technologists are all highly skilled and are credentialed as Registered Vascular Technologists (RVT) through the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (ARDMS). Our technologists, in addition to performing screening tests, are also the same staff providing high quality diagnostic testing in many of the local area hospitals.
RPVI Credentialed Interpreting Physicians
The studies are independently reviewed by a qualified local vascular surgeon who is Registered Physician’s Vascular Interpretation (RPVI) certified through the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers.
Local Company
Our company is local, as are our screening facilities, which are permanent fixed site locales.
Cost Effectiveness
To maximize the cost effectiveness of the screening (e.g., not waste the public’s money), Futura is committed to providing screening to only those most likely to benefit.
Pre-screening Criteria & Proper Test Result Evaluation
Vascular screenings are for high-risk cardiovascular individuals with no symptoms. Thus, we conduct a high-risk screening questionnaire at the time of scheduling to assess whether the potential patient fits the profile for those individuals most at risk for atherosclerotic disease. If potential patient does not fit the profile, they will be so advised. Ultimately, we cannot, for medical legal reasons, deny an individual not meeting the criteria access to the screenings, but in doing the risk prescreening, they will at least have been informed that the screenings are likely to be unremarkable.
Avoiding Unnecessary Further Testing
To ensure the screenings do not inappropriately increase costs incurred by our healthcare system, screening interpretation criteria have been established that aim to minimize unnecessary further testing associated with sub-clinically significant disease (minimal disease that does not warrant further diagnostic testing). In other words, the Futura screening program is specifically designed to minimize the number of unnecessary diagnostic tests ordered as a result of a “positive” screening study. The patient will be advised to only seek further diagnostic testing when the screening test results truly warrant it. In order to provide results with this level of specificity we must have qualified and highly skilled staff (please refer to comments above).
Patient Follow-Up
The screening exam results are discussed with the screening participant by a qualified vascular ultrasound professional, giving appropriate recommendations and educational materials to the participant. Screening results will be sent to the participant’s physician. If significant arterial disease is identified, opportunity exists for the participant to work with his/her physician to modify risk factors and seek further treatment as appropriate.
Note: If any critical results are discovered in any screening, the participant’s physician will be informed immediately.
Equipment
State-of-the-art vascular diagnostic equipment is used for all of the screening exams.
