The best vascular ultrasound clinic is one that has sonographers with genuine experience reading blood flow studies, offers bulk billing for eligible patients, and gets results back to your doctor quickly. Vascular scans are more technically demanding than many other ultrasounds, so the clinic and sonographer you choose can genuinely affect how reliable your result is. At Capri Ultrasound on the Gold Coast, we built our vascular imaging service around these exact points.
If you have a referral in hand and are trying to work out where to book, here is what is actually worth checking before you choose a clinic.
Not every ultrasound clinic performs vascular studies often. A sonographer who mostly does general abdominal or pregnancy scans will have less day to day familiarity with reading blood flow patterns than one who performs vascular studies regularly. At Capri Ultrasound we perform vascular ultrasounds regularly from standard DVT and carotid artery ultrasounds to more specialised scans such as varicose veins, temporal, renal and mesenteric arteries and thoracic outlet syndrome. Our sonographer has over 20 years experience with vascular ultrasound and has worked with several vascular surgeons. You can read more about our sonographer’s background and experience with vascular referrals on our about us page.
If you are a Medicare card holder and your referral is from a doctor then you will be bulk-billed at Capri Ultrasound. It is worth noting that your referral is accepted at any imaging provider so you can book with any company you wish. This means you avoid paying an out of pocket fee (gap) at other providers on the Gold Coast by simply booking at Capri Ultrasound. Gap fees for vascular ultrasound on the Gold Coast can range up to $374 for a varicose vein study on a single leg or, for other vascular ultrasounds, as much as $310 for a single exam. Gap fees are applied per exam, so this means that if you need two vascular ultrasounds (eg: the arteries in both legs) you will be charged up to $620 out of pocket and up to $748 for varicose veins.
Turnaround time matters more for vascular scans than many people realise, since conditions like DVT can progress quickly if left undiagnosed. A clinic that treats every referral the same way, regardless of urgency, is not necessarily the right fit if your doctor has flagged something time sensitive. At Capri Ultrasound, we prioritise urgent ultrasound requests with a same day booking. This avoids booking delays of days to weeks seen at other practices. Urgent reports are prioritised and we attempt to return your doctor on the same day or give them a verbal report when this is not possible.
Location matters more than people expect, particularly if you need a follow up scan or are attending with mobility issues. A clinic based centrally on the Gold Coast with straightforward parking and access removes one more barrier to actually getting the scan your doctor has asked for. This is especially relevant for varicose vein studies, where Medicare rules mean scans on both legs sometimes need to be booked across two separate days, so a clinic that is easy to get to twice matters more than it might for a single quick appointment.
We perform vascular scans as a core part of our daily work rather than an occasional service, bulk bill Medicare card holders with a referral from a doctor and prioritise urgent cases such as suspected DVT. Our sonographer has over 20 years of experience and has worked with multiple vascular surgeons. We are also locally owned rather than part of a large corporate chain, which means the same experienced team is consistently involved in your care rather than results being read by whoever happens to be rostered on.
If you are comparing vascular ultrasound clinics on the Gold Coast, checking accreditation, experience, bulk billing and turnaround time will tell you most of what you need to know. If you have a referral in hand and would like to book with a clinic that ticks all of these boxes, get in touch with Capri Ultrasound, or speak with your GP about whether we are the right fit for your scan.
