Remote radiology reading and reporting services
Scope, project management & OEM documentation
Biomedical & IT teams deployed nationwide
Dedicated service desk for Nigerian facilities
Radiology Reader & Reporting Support Service is a teleradiology solution where certified radiologists remotely interpret medical images (X-rays, CTs, MRIs, Mammograms) and provide formal diagnostic reports for healthcare facilities. It is essential for hospitals, diagnostic centres, and clinics facing a shortage of on-site radiologists, experiencing reporting backlogs, or needing 24/7 coverage for emergency cases. This service directly solves the critical problems of delayed patient diagnosis, high costs of hiring full-time sub-specialists (like neuroradiologists or paediatric radiologists), and the inability to provide round-the-clock radiological interpretations, which is a common challenge in both urban centres like Lagos and remote, donor-funded sites. Facilities typically served range from large federal teaching hospitals looking to clear MRI backlogs, to private multi-specialist hospitals in Abuja needing overnight and weekend coverage, to standalone imaging centres in Port Harcourt requiring expert second opinions on complex cases.
Ad-hoc, pay-per-study services range from NGN 5,000 - NGN 15,000 per report, depending on modality. Bundled monthly retainers for a set volume of studies typically cost between NGN 500,000 and NGN 2,500,000. A fully outsourced, turnkey reporting service for an entire department can range from NGN 3,000,000 to over NGN 10,000,000 monthly. Cost is driven by the mix of imaging modalities (an MRI brain report costs more than a chest X-ray), the required turnaround time (a STAT report for a trauma case is premium-priced), the need for specific sub-specialists, report volume, and the complexity of IT integration with your existing hospital information system (HIS). Regulatory documentation for donor-funded projects, which requires detailed KPI tracking and reporting, can also influence the price.
Contact Franance for a tailored quote based on your specific study volume and turnaround needs.
The minimum cost is typically an ad-hoc, pay-per-read arrangement with an individual radiologist, which can range from NGN 3,000 - NGN 7,000 per basic study like a chest X-ray. This price usually excludes a formal technology platform (relying on insecure channels like WhatsApp), guaranteed turnaround times, quality assurance (like peer review), professional indemnity insurance, and any form of structured reporting or administrative support. Hidden costs emerge from slow response times delaying patient care, lack of documentation for audits, and the risk of misdiagnosis without a formal QA process.
A low price often means high risk; ensure you are not compromising patient safety.
An affordable, value-optimized service is a bundled package costing between NGN 300,000 and NGN 1,500,000 per month, which includes a set number of studies or a credit-based system. This model provides cost predictability and access to a professional platform and a team of radiologists, offering far better value than volatile ad-hoc pricing. The benefits include consistent report quality, guaranteed turnaround times defined in an SLA, and access to a secure PACS/RIS platform for image transfer and report access, which is crucial for facilities in data-sensitive environments.
Franance offers flexible bundles that provide professional-grade teleradiology at a predictable monthly cost.
An Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) equivalent in teleradiology is a fixed-fee annual or monthly contract for an agreed volume of reports, ranging from NGN 4,000,000 to NGN 20,000,000+ annually. This provides budget predictability and typically a lower cost-per-report. A Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC) equivalent is a pure pay-as-you-go model where you pay for each report as it is ordered. While this offers flexibility, the per-report cost is higher, and it can lead to unpredictable monthly expenses, making cash-flow management difficult for your facility.
| Feature | Fixed-Fee Contract (AMC) | Pay-Per-Read (CMC) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost Predictability | High (Fixed monthly/annual fee) | Low (Varies with patient volume) |
| Per-Report Cost | Lower | Higher |
| Budgeting | Easy, planned operational expense | Difficult, reactive expense |
| Service Level | Guaranteed in SLA | Often best-effort |
| Partnership Level | High (Integrated partner) | Low (Transactional vendor) |
For consistent needs, a fixed-fee contract offers superior financial and operational value.
Get a transparent, all-inclusive quote for your facility's specific needs from Franance today.
You can find providers through professional associations like the Association of Radiologists in Nigeria (ARIN), referrals from other hospitals, and specialized healthcare service companies. While many coordinating offices are in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, the service is delivered remotely and is available to any facility nationwide with a stable internet connection. The selection process must involve rigorous due diligence beyond just price. You must verify their corporate standing with the CAC, the medical licenses of their reporting radiologists with the MDCN, and their technical infrastructure's compliance with data protection laws (NDPR). Franance simplifies this by providing a pre-vetted network of certified radiologists and a secure, audited technology platform.
Demand these documents to ensure you are partnering with a legitimate and capable provider.
Franance provides a fully managed teleradiology service built on a secure, cloud-native platform, connecting Nigerian healthcare facilities to a network of verified, MDCN-licensed radiologists and sub-specialists. Our service covers all modalities and offers nationwide support, from urban centres to remote locations, ensuring consistent and high-quality diagnostic reporting. We handle the technology, quality assurance, and administrative overhead, allowing you to focus on patient care.
The best providers are those who function as a true clinical partner, not just a transactional vendor. They are distinguished by the breadth of their sub-specialist portfolio, a robust and user-friendly technology platform, and a proven track record of meeting stringent SLAs. Top providers like Franance invest in a Nigerian-based support team, understand local challenges like internet instability, and offer transparent reporting dashboards that give you, the Operations Director or CIO, full visibility into performance. Their engineer-to-site ratio is replaced by a support-specialist-to-client ratio, ensuring you always have someone to call.
A standard Scope of Work (SOW) includes the remote diagnostic interpretation of specific medical imaging studies, the generation of formal reports, and a defined communication protocol for critical findings. The SOW is typically phased, starting with technical setup and onboarding, moving to active daily reporting, and including ongoing quality assurance and performance reviews. A typical timeline for full implementation after contract signing is 7-14 business days, allowing for IT integration and user training.
The process begins with your radiographer performing a scan on a patient using your equipment, such as a GE Healthcare Optima CT680 or a Siemens Magnetom MRI. The resulting DICOM images are sent from your modality's console to a secure, pre-configured gateway device or software. This gateway encrypts the images and transmits them over your internet connection to the provider's central cloud PACS. The case appears on a worklist where it is assigned to an available, appropriately specialized radiologist. The radiologist views the images on a diagnostic-grade monitor, dictates or types their findings and impression, and electronically signs the final report. Your facility is notified, and the report becomes available for download from the secure web portal. The entire process is governed by standards ensuring data integrity and patient confidentiality.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) tiers are typically defined by report turnaround time (TAT): Critical/STAT cases (e.g., acute stroke, major trauma) require a TAT of 30-60 minutes; Urgent cases (e.g., suspected pneumonia in an inpatient) require a 2-4 hour TAT; and Routine cases (e.g., outpatient screening) have a 12-24 hour TAT. The SLA should also guarantee a platform uptime of at least 99.5% and specify penalties, such as service credits, for failing to meet these targets. A robust SLA includes remote triage for IT issues with a response time of under 30 minutes.
Request a copy of the Franance SLA, which includes guaranteed turnaround times, platform uptime, and a transparent service credit policy.
You receive a formal, signed diagnostic report in PDF format for every study submitted. On an ongoing basis, you should receive monthly and quarterly performance reports detailing key metrics like study volume by modality, average turnaround times, and a summary of critical findings. For auditing and compliance, especially for NGO or government-funded programs, these reports serve as official documentation of service delivery and quality. The provider should also be able to furnish certificates of NDPR compliance for their platform and proof of MDCN registration for their radiologists.
The primary compliance bodies for a teleradiology service are the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), which licenses the radiologists, and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which enforces the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). While your facility is responsible for NNRA compliance for your radiation-emitting equipment and SON/NAFDAC for equipment and consumables, your teleradiology provider must prove their clinical and data governance. They must provide evidence that all reporting radiologists hold a current, valid license to practice in Nigeria. Their IT platform and data handling processes must be demonstrably compliant with NDPR, which involves having a Data Protection Officer, conducting impact assessments, and ensuring data is securely stored and transferred.
Preventive maintenance for a teleradiology service focuses on the IT and operational linkage between your facility and the provider. This involves a scheduled quarterly review of system performance, user access protocols, and communication workflows. The goal is to proactively identify and resolve potential issues before they impact service delivery. This is managed remotely by the provider's support team in coordination with your IT or biomedical lead.
Emergency repair addresses a critical service failure, such as the inability to upload studies or a complete platform outage. The response process starts with an immediate phone call from your facility to the provider's dedicated 24/7 support line. Remote triage by an IT specialist should begin within 15 minutes to diagnose the problem (e.g., is it your internet, or their server?). If the issue is on their end, it should be escalated to a senior engineer, with a clear communication plan provided to you within 30 minutes. The SLA should define resolution targets based on severity.
For a teleradiology service, "spare parts" translates to IT infrastructure redundancy. The provider must maintain high availability by eliminating single points of failure. This means their primary application and data should be hosted in a high-quality data centre (e.g., Tier III) with redundant power, cooling, and network connections. Critical data should be backed up and replicated to a geographically separate disaster recovery site. This ensures that even if their primary site in Lagos goes down, they can failover to the secondary site and continue providing service with minimal disruption.
Training involves teaching your radiographers, technicians, and relevant clinical staff how to use the teleradiology platform. This is typically done via a 2-3 hour live, virtual session before the service goes live. The training covers how to log in, select the correct patient, upload studies from your modality (e.g., a Philips Incisive CT), enter clinical history, and how to view/download the final report. A "super-user" should be designated at your facility to receive more in-depth training and act as the first point of contact for simple user questions.
In teleradiology, the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is replaced by the provider's Reporting Information System (RIS), which acts as a digital asset register for all studies and reports. This system should tag every study with a unique ID and track its entire lifecycle, from receipt of images to report finalization. Key KPIs tracked within the system include turnaround time (TAT), study volume per modality, and radiologist workload. You should have dashboard access to view your facility's specific KPIs.
Before service commencement, the provider should conduct a remote technical assessment of your facility's power and internet infrastructure. This is not a full electrical audit but a readiness check. They will need to know the power backup situation for your specific modality (e.g., Siemens Artis Q ceiling system), the control room workstation, and your network equipment (router/switch). They will recommend a minimum UPS capacity and runtime (e.g., a 2kVA UPS with 60 minutes runtime) to ensure a scan in progress can be completed and transmitted successfully during a NEPA outage before your generator kicks in.
This translates to the onboarding and go-live process for the teleradiology service. The process is entirely remote and typically takes 1-2 weeks. It starts with the installation and configuration of a secure software gateway on your network. This is followed by a series of tests to ensure DICOM images can be pushed successfully from your modalities to the provider's PACS. User training is conducted, and then a "go-live" date is set. The commissioning phase involves a hyper-care period of 48-72 hours where the provider's support team is on high alert to resolve any initial issues quickly.
This is the off-boarding process when you terminate the service. The provider must have a clear, secure process for returning your patient data and wiping it from their systems. They must provide you with a complete archive of all images and reports generated during the contract, typically delivered on an encrypted external hard drive. Following the data handover, they must perform a certified data wipe of all your patient information from their primary and backup systems and provide you with a formal Certificate of Data Destruction. This is a critical step for NDPR compliance.
Quality control is typically managed through a systematic, anonymized peer-review process. A small percentage (e.g., 3-5%) of all reports are randomly or selectively reviewed by a second, often more senior, radiologist to check for diagnostic accuracy, clarity, and completeness. Performance is verified through the monthly SLA reports, which track objective metrics like turnaround time. Regular clinical governance meetings between your medical director and the provider's lead radiologist can also help align on quality expectations and protocols.
This is not directly applicable to the remote service, but its equivalent is Data Security & Privacy Testing. The provider must demonstrate that they regularly test the security of their platform to protect your patient data. This includes performing annual third-party vulnerability scans and penetration tests to identify and fix security weaknesses. They should be able to provide an attestation or a summary report confirming that these tests have been conducted and that any identified critical vulnerabilities have been remediated. This is essential for ensuring NDPR compliance and protecting your facility from data breaches.
The key performance indicators (KPIs) you must track are: Report Turnaround Time (TAT) broken down by priority (STAT, Urgent, Routine), Platform Uptime (%), Critical Findings Notification Time, and Report Discrepancy/Peer Review Rate. These metrics should be delivered in a comprehensive report on a monthly basis. The best providers, like Franance, offer a secure online dashboard where you can log in and view these KPIs in near real-time, providing complete transparency and control.
Standard payment terms are a monthly invoice issued at the beginning of the month for the services rendered in the preceding month, with a 30-day payment period (Net 30). Payments are typically made in Nigerian Naira (NGN) via direct bank transfer. For large annual contracts, an upfront payment for the first quarter or a performance bond may be required. It is crucial to clarify the applicability of Value Added Tax (VAT) and ensure it is properly itemized on all invoices.
Teleradiology services are available to any healthcare facility in Nigeria with a stable internet connection, regardless of location. Providers like Franance offer true nationwide coverage by leveraging a centralized, cloud-based platform. This means a clinic in Sokoto, an NGO site in Borno, or a private hospital in Calabar can access the same pool of high-quality, Lagos- or Abuja-based sub-specialist radiologists as a major teaching hospital. Franance manages this through regional technical support contacts and a central helpdesk, ensuring that expert diagnostic support is always available, breaking down geographical barriers to quality healthcare.
Share your requirements for rollout, training and SLAs. Our service desk will prepare budgets, documentation and timelines aligned to your facility.
30+ Years
Experience delivering healthcare projects in Nigeria
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Biomedical & IT teams for installation, calibration & support
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Coverage across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano & beyond
Honest answers about scope, pricing, delivery and support so you can plan with confidence.
A Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC) for a single CT scanner, like a GE Optima CT540, typically ranges from ₦3.5M to ₦7M annually. The cost depends on the equipment's age, usage, and included services like X-ray tube coverage. An Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC), which excludes major parts, is usually 40-60% cheaper. Bundling multiple systems, such as an MRI and a digital X-ray, can reduce the per-unit cost.
For critical equipment failures, such as a Philips Ingenia 1.5T MRI going offline, our Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantees a 4-hour remote diagnostic response. If the issue cannot be resolved remotely, an engineer is dispatched for on-site support within 6-8 hours for facilities within Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. For other regions, the on-site response time is typically within 24 hours, depending on accessibility.
A standard SOW includes scheduled Preventive Maintenance (PM) twice a year, unlimited emergency breakdown calls, and remote technical support. For a Siemens Somatom go.Up CT scanner, the PM checklist would specify X-ray tube calibration, gantry lubrication, and detector performance tests. The SOW should also clearly define response times, uptime guarantees (e.g., 95%), and a list of included spare parts.
Request engineer certifications specific to your equipment model, such as a GE Revolution EVO CT. Ask for at least three references from Nigerian hospitals of similar size and check their local spare parts inventory for critical components like power supplies for your Siemens Artis Q cath lab. A physical inspection of their workshop and testing tools can also validate their technical capacity.
An Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) covers labour for preventive and breakdown maintenance but excludes the cost of spare parts. A Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC) is an all-inclusive package covering labour, all spare parts, and often includes high-cost components like the X-ray tube for a GE Optima CT680. A CMC offers predictable budgeting, while an AMC has a lower initial cost but carries financial risk for part failures.
Your technicians upload anonymized patient scans from your PACS system, like a Carestream Vue, to a secure, encrypted portal. Our certified radiologists access the images, interpret them, and return a detailed report within a pre-agreed turnaround time (TAT). For stroke protocol CT scans, the TAT is typically under 60 minutes, while standard X-ray reports are delivered within 4-6 hours, ensuring your clinicians get timely diagnostic information.
Yes, if the upfront annual cost of a CMC for high-value equipment like a Siemens Magnetom Aera MRI is a budgetary concern, Franance options are available. This allows you to convert the large capital outlay into smaller, predictable monthly operational payments. This ensures your equipment remains under full protection without straining your cash flow, aligning maintenance costs with monthly revenue generation.
NNRA guidelines require that any service involving the radiation source, such as replacing an X-ray tube on a Philips Incisive CT, must be performed by an NNRA-licensed engineer. The provider must also conduct and document radiation leakage surveys post-service using a calibrated survey meter. All service reports must be maintained for NNRA audits to prove safe and compliant operation of the equipment.
The onboarding process typically takes 5-7 business days. This involves setting up a secure VPN or cloud connection to your PACS, configuring modality worklists for seamless study transfer from your GE Logiq S8 ultrasound, and conducting a test run with 5-10 sample cases. We also finalize the reporting templates and escalation protocols with your clinical team during this period to ensure a smooth transition.
A third-party provider often offers more flexible and cost-effective service contracts, typically 20-40% lower than OEM prices for equipment like a Canon Aquilion Prime CT. They can also service multi-vendor equipment under one contract. However, for brand new, highly specialized systems like a Siemens Biograph PET/CT, the OEM may have exclusive access to proprietary software and parts for the first few years, making them the only viable option.
A standard service contract for an MRI, such as a GE Signa Explorer 1.5T, should guarantee a minimum of 95% uptime, calculated monthly. This translates to less than 36 hours of downtime per month. The contract should specify penalties or service credit for failing to meet this guarantee. The calculation excludes scheduled maintenance and user-related errors to ensure fairness.
We maintain a robust inventory of tested, refurbished spare parts for legacy systems like the Philips Brilliance 64 CT scanner. For critical components, we have established supply chains in Europe and the US, with a typical import and clearing timeline of 7-10 business days. This strategy ensures we can support older, yet functional, equipment cost-effectively, extending its operational life for your facility.
If a critical issue with your cath lab, like a Siemens Artis zee, is not resolved within the initial 4-hour SLA, the issue is automatically escalated. The first level is the regional service manager. If unresolved after another 4 hours, it escalates to the Director of Engineering. This two-tier protocol ensures senior technical oversight is applied to complex problems, minimizing extended downtime and communicating progress clearly to your department head.
Yes, all our reports are generated by radiologists certified by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) with sub-specialty expertise. For instance, a complex neurovascular MRI from a Siemens Magnetom Skyra 3T is read by a neuroradiologist. The detailed, structured reports follow international standards and are trusted by leading surgeons and physicians at teaching hospitals across Nigeria for accurate diagnosis and surgical planning.
Standard payment terms require a 100% upfront annual payment for both AMC and CMC contracts. For larger contracts or long-term partners, we can offer a 50% advance payment with the balance paid in two quarterly installments. For facilities facing budget constraints on high-value contracts, like for a GE Discovery PET/CT, we can facilitate a Franance plan to spread the cost over 12 monthly payments.
Our engineers connect to your GE Optima CT660 console via a secure, encrypted remote session. They can diagnose software glitches, recalibrate parameters, clear error logs, and guide your on-site radiographer through hardware resets. This resolves over 60% of software-related faults within 30 minutes, avoiding the delay and cost of an on-site engineer visit and getting your scanner operational much faster.
After each PM on equipment like a Hologic Selenia Dimensions mammography unit, you receive a detailed service report. This document includes a checklist of all tasks performed, parts replaced, and performance test results, such as phantom image quality scores and dose measurements. This documentation is crucial for your internal quality control and for demonstrating compliance during regulatory audits by bodies like NNRA or SON.
Yes, we offer nationwide coverage with engineers strategically located in regional hubs. While our guaranteed on-site response time of 6-8 hours applies to major cities, we commit to a 24-48 hour response for facilities in more remote locations. We achieve this by combining robust remote support with a network of regional field engineers, ensuring your Philips DigitalDiagnost C50 X-ray in Sokoto receives the same quality of support.
If a critical part for your Siemens Acuson S2000 ultrasound is not in our local stock, we immediately source it through our international partners. We use an expedited air freight service, and our logistics team pre-manages customs clearance to minimize delays. The typical lead time for such parts is 7-10 business days. During this time, we explore temporary solutions or workarounds to keep the system partially functional if possible.
We use a HIPAA-compliant platform with end-to-end 256-bit AES encryption for all data transfers. All patient identifiers are anonymized before images from your Agfa CR 30-X are uploaded to our secure cloud server, hosted within Nigeria. Access is restricted to authorized radiologists via two-factor authentication, and a complete audit trail of every action is logged, ensuring full compliance with data protection standards.
A one-time emergency repair, such as replacing a power supply on a GE OEC 9900 C-arm, can cost between ₦500,000 and ₦1.5M, including parts and labour. In contrast, an annual AMC might cost ₦1.8M but covers labour for unlimited breakdowns. A service contract provides cost predictability and includes preventive maintenance, which reduces the likelihood of such expensive, unexpected failures in the first place.
Yes, our engineers are cross-trained on multiple brands. This is a key advantage for facilities with diverse equipment, such as a GE MRI, a Siemens CT, and a Canon X-ray machine. Having a single service provider simplifies contract management, provides one point of contact for all issues, and ensures a holistic understanding of your department's workflow. We can create a single, blended contract covering all your major imaging assets.
Under a CMC for a GE Optima CT540, we perform semi-annual calibration of the X-ray tube's kVp, mA, and exposure time using a calibrated dosimeter. We track key performance indicators like arcing and heat unit buildup to predict potential failure. If performance degrades below OEM specifications, we proactively replace the tube before it fails catastrophically, all covered under the contract, ensuring consistent image quality and no surprise costs.
Our standard turnaround time (TAT) for routine studies like chest X-rays and ultrasounds is 6-8 hours. For more complex cross-sectional imaging like CT and MRI scans, the TAT is 12-24 hours. We also offer a STAT reporting service for emergency cases with a guaranteed TAT of 60 minutes, ensuring your ER physicians can make critical decisions without delay.
Yes, we can assist in the SONCAP process for imported refurbished equipment like a Philips Achieva MRI. Our role involves performing a comprehensive technical evaluation, calibrating the system to meet OEM specifications, and issuing a Certificate of Technical Conformity. This certificate is a required document for the SONCAP application, confirming the equipment is safe, functional, and meets Nigerian quality standards.
We provide application training for your staff as part of our service contracts. This includes teaching them how to perform daily quality assurance checks, basic troubleshooting for common errors on your Fuji FDR Go 2 mobile X-ray, and optimizing imaging protocols for better image quality and lower radiation dose. This empowers your team to resolve minor issues independently, reducing service calls and improving equipment uptime.
For 24/7 operations, we schedule Preventive Maintenance (PM) during off-peak hours, such as overnight or on weekends, to minimize disruption to patient flow. For a busy ER's Siemens Somatom Definition AS CT, we can split the PM into two shorter sessions. Our service contract also includes 24/7 remote and on-call support to address any breakdowns immediately, regardless of the time of day.
Our contracts are transparent with no hidden costs. The SOW clearly lists all inclusions and exclusions. For an AMC, it will state that spare parts are billable. For a CMC, it will list any specific exclusions, such as damage from power surges or user misuse. We discuss these terms upfront to ensure you have a clear and predictable maintenance budget for your equipment, like the GE Vivid E95 ultrasound.
In the event of a magnet quench on a Siemens Magnetom Avanto, our protocol is immediate. First, we guide your staff on-site to ensure patient and staff safety. An engineer is dispatched within 4 hours to assess the cryogen levels and magnet integrity. We then coordinate with cryogen suppliers for an emergency refill and manage the entire process of ramping the magnet back up, a procedure that can take 3-5 days.
We employ a multi-level quality assurance process. Every report is drafted by a sub-specialist radiologist. A percentage of routine cases and all complex cases, such as a multi-phasic liver CT from a Canon Aquilion One, undergo a peer review by a second, senior radiologist before being finalized. This system minimizes errors, ensures high diagnostic accuracy, and provides a consistent, high-quality standard for all our reporting.