A mobile PET/CT scanner is a fully self-contained, hospital-grade PET/CT imaging suite housed inside a specialized trailer — typically 8 by 48 feet, though larger 12 by 60 foot configurations are available. The trailer includes the PET/CT gantry itself, a dedicated patient uptake room, a fully equipped hot lab for radiopharmaceutical handling, the control and console area, and all the mechanical systems (HVAC, shielding, electrical) needed to operate the scanner. Each unit arrives at your facility ready to scan.

Cost and timeline. A fixed PET/CT suite typically runs $5 to $10 million in total project cost, with the equipment itself representing only part of the spend — shielding construction, radiopharmacy buildout, HVAC modifications, electrical service, and licensing all stack on top. Construction timelines run 18 to 36 months from project approval to first patient scan. A mobile PET/CT rental delivers the same diagnostic capability with up to 80 percent less capital outlay and deployment measured in weeks rather than years. For facilities adding PET/CT for the first time, piloting a new service line, or bridging capacity during a fixed-suite buildout, mobile is almost always the more practical choice.

Five common situations. First, expanding oncology PET capacity for staging, restaging, and treatment follow-up when wait times are creeping up. Second, replacing an aging fixed PET/CT during shielding upgrades or facility transitions — without losing access to imaging during construction. Third, launching a new PET/CT service line or pilot theranostics workflow with lower upfront risk and the option to scale once volume is proven. Fourth, bringing advanced molecular imaging to underserved or rural communities that cannot justify a permanent installation. Fifth, extending PET/CT availability across satellite campuses on a routed or scheduled basis instead of building separate fixed suites at each location.

Yes. Every Amber mobile PET/CT trailer includes a fully equipped hot lab as standard, integrated into the trailer alongside the gantry and patient uptake room. This is not an add-on or optional configuration — it is the only way mobile PET/CT works operationally. Without a hot lab on the trailer, your nuclear medicine technologist would have nowhere to draw doses, perform daily quality control, or handle radiopharmaceutical waste safely.

The hot lab on a mobile PET/CT trailer is functionally equivalent to the hot lab in a fixed PET/CT suite. Standard equipment includes the dose calibrator (typically a Capintec CRC-15 or equivalent), L-block tabletop shields for safe dose drawing, lead-lined syringe carriers for dose transport from the hot lab to the patient, syringe shields, lead-shielded sharps containers for contaminated needles, a survey meter for area surveys and contamination checks, decay-in-storage waste receptacles, and a sink and handwashing station for staff decontamination. The hot lab is shielded according to the medical physicist’s specifications and configured to support standard nuclear medicine workflow — dose receipt, assay, dispensing, and waste decay-in-storage.

No. Radiopharmaceuticals are a separate cost coordinated with a regional commercial radiopharmacy, not bundled into the rental. This is industry standard across all mobile PET/CT providers — FDG and other PET radiotracers have a 110-minute half-life and must be delivered fresh on the day of use, which means they cannot be stocked in advance and are not part of a multi-month rental scope. Amber works with regional radiopharmacies nationwide and can help coordinate delivery to your mobile PET/CT site as part of project planning. Most facilities arrange their own pharmacy contract because the rates are negotiated based on patient volume and standing orders.

FDG and other PET radiopharmaceuticals are delivered daily from a regional commercial radiopharmacy via dedicated courier. The pharmacy assays the dose at production, places it in a shielded shipping container, and the courier delivers it directly to your mobile unit on the morning of each scanning day. The hot lab on the mobile unit handles dose verification, drawing into patient unit doses, and dispensing — exactly as it would in a fixed suite. Pharmacy lead times and minimum order quantities vary by region; we can help you identify the closest radiopharmacy and walk through the logistics during site planning.

Your facility needs to order calibration sources for the scanner in advance of delivery and setup, using your Radioactive Materials License (RML). The mobile PET/CT cannot be calibrated without these sources, and they must be on site when the system is commissioned. Specific sources depend on the scanner platform and the procedures you will be running, but typically include pin sources for daily quality control, injectable sources for phantom imaging, and any platform-specific sources required by the OEM commissioning protocol. We provide an exact list of required sources well before delivery so you can place the order with your regional supplier.

F-18 (FDG) has a 110-minute half-life, which means most radioactive waste from a PET/CT operation decays to background activity within about 24 hours through the standard decay-in-storage method. The hot lab on the mobile trailer includes lead-shielded waste storage receptacles sized for typical daily volume, and your nuclear medicine technologist follows the standard radioactive waste handling protocols. For longer-half-life isotopes used in theranostics or specialty PET applications, separate waste handling arrangements may be needed. Discuss your isotope mix with us during site planning so we can confirm the waste storage on the unit is adequate for your protocols.

Your facility needs an active Radioactive Materials License (RML) — issued by either the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or your state’s Agreement State radiation control program — that authorizes possession and use of the specific radiopharmaceuticals you intend to administer. The RML must be in place before sources or radiopharmaceuticals can be delivered to your mobile unit. Your facility also needs a designated Radiation Safety Officer (RSO), an active dosimetry program for radiation workers, and documented radiation safety policies and procedures. These are the same licensing requirements that apply to a fixed PET/CT installation.

CON requirements vary widely by state. Some states require a Certificate of Need before any new PET/CT capacity — including mobile rentals — can be deployed at a facility. Other states have no CON requirement at all, and a third group has CON requirements that specifically exempt or accommodate mobile imaging. The CON process typically involves application, documentation, and a review period that can run several months. We recommend contacting your state’s Department of Health early in the planning process to determine what applies in your jurisdiction. For states with active CON requirements, we structure rentals on fixed-term rates that align with the approved CON scope.

Yes. State radiation control programs require a qualified medical physicist to inspect any new PET/CT installation — including a mobile unit at a new site — before patient use. The physicist reviews the shielding effectiveness, validates dose calibrator quality control, verifies radiation safety procedures, and confirms the unit meets the applicable regulatory standards. For mobile units, the physicist’s report often needs to be repeated each time the unit moves to a new site, depending on state requirements. Our team coordinates with your medical physicist to support this process.

Mobile PET/CT units operated under proper credentials can be ACR-accredited and Joint Commission-compliant. ACR PET accreditation covers the equipment, the imaging protocols, the personnel qualifications, and the quality control program. Joint Commission accreditation focuses on the broader facility processes. Mobile units typically extend the accreditation of the hosting facility rather than carry their own accreditation, but the documentation requirements are real — preventative maintenance logs, image quality phantom results, technologist credentials, and radiation safety records all need to be available for accreditation surveys. We provide all required documentation as part of every rental.

Rental terms are flexible and structured around the use case. Short-term rentals as brief as a few months work for emergency bridge coverage during fixed-suite renovations or unexpected scanner downtime. Long-term rentals of 3 to 10 years are common for facilities using mobile PET/CT as a permanent solution — particularly satellite campuses, rural sites, and outpatient programs where a fixed installation cannot be justified. Routed service (1 to several days per week at multiple sites) is also available for facilities that do not need PET/CT every day.

Mobile PET/CT rental rates are higher than mobile MRI or mobile CT because of the additional equipment integrated into the trailer — the hot lab, uptake room, additional shielding, and supporting infrastructure. Monthly rates vary based on the scanner platform (16-slice vs. 64-slice CT subsystem, standard vs. time-of-flight PET), the rental term length, the location, and overall market demand. Custom quotes are the norm for PET/CT — every project has its own variables, and a generic monthly number rarely reflects actual project economics. We are happy to put together a quote based on your specific requirements.

The monthly rental rate covers the trailer itself, the PET/CT scanner, the integrated hot lab and its equipment, the uptake room, full preventative maintenance on all equipment and trailer systems, helium top-offs and cold head service for the PET subsystem, software updates and patches, climate control, 24/7 technical support, and emergency repair response. What is typically separate: radiopharmaceuticals (coordinated with a regional pharmacy), calibration and pin sources (ordered under your RML), one-time transportation and setup fees, and the medical physicist’s inspection (a third-party service). A good quote will lay out all included items alongside the one-time costs so there are no surprises at the back end.

Mobile PET/CT fleets typically include systems from the major OEM platforms — Siemens, GE, Philips, and Canon. Common configurations include the Siemens Biograph Horizon and Biograph mCT platforms, GE Discovery PET/CT (in 16-slice and 64-slice configurations), and GE Discovery VCT. Most modern mobile PET/CT units feature 70 cm wide-bore gantries, LSO (lutetium oxyorthosilicate) PET detector technology, and integrated dual-head contrast injectors. The right platform depends on your clinical mix — oncology-focused programs have different needs than cardiac PET programs.

Most mobile PET/CT systems feature a 16-slice CT subsystem, which is more than adequate for the attenuation correction and anatomic localization that PET/CT requires. The CT side of a PET/CT is primarily used to correlate metabolic activity from the PET acquisition with anatomic structures — it does not need the slice count of a dedicated diagnostic CT scanner. Some premium platforms feature 64-slice or higher CT subsystems, which support diagnostic-quality CT in addition to PET fusion. This becomes meaningful for cardiac PET imaging, where calcium scoring and coronary CTA may be performed alongside the PET acquisition. If diagnostic CT is part of your workflow on the same unit, the higher slice count is worth the premium.

Image quality from a properly maintained mobile PET/CT is clinically equivalent to the same scanner platform installed in a fixed suite. The OEM scanners in mobile trailers — Siemens Biograph Horizon, GE Discovery — are the same systems that go into hospital PET/CT suites across the country. The shielding, detector calibration, and acquisition protocols all deliver hospital-grade results. The factor that actually drives image quality is whether the rental provider maintains the system to OEM standards and runs daily quality control — not whether the system sits in a trailer or a building.

At a minimum, you need a level placement area large enough for the trailer (typically 48 feet long and 8 to 12 feet wide depending on configuration), access to adequate electrical power, a safe and accessible patient access path between your building and the trailer, your operational workflow for check-in and screening, and the regulatory framework (RML, RSO, dosimetry program) to handle radiopharmaceutical operations. Our site requirements guide covers all of this in detail and we walk through every item with your facilities team before delivery.

Mobile PET/CT trailers require 480-volt three-phase electrical service, typically with 200-amp capacity, via Russellstoll receptacle. If your facility cannot provide this directly, we can arrange a dedicated generator that runs continuously through the rental term and is sized for the full scanner load plus the trailer’s mechanical systems. Connection from your building’s electrical service is significantly more cost-effective than running on a generator, but the generator option exists for sites where building power is not available or practical.

The parking surface should be as flat and as solid as possible to support the trailer’s weight during leveling. Concrete is the preferred surface. Asphalt works but with caution — asphalt can soften in heat, particularly during summer months, which can cause the trailer’s support jacks to leave indentations or sink into the surface. For surfaces where damage is a concern, we provide plywood or steel plates underneath the support points to distribute the load. We walk the site with you before delivery to identify the right placement and any protective measures needed for your specific surface.

Standard mobile PET/CT trailers are roughly 48 feet long, 8 to 8.5 feet wide, and 13.5 feet tall, with the interior configured for the scanner gantry, control area, hot lab, and uptake room. Larger 12 by 60 foot trailer configurations are available for higher-volume programs that need more interior workflow space. Total trailer weight when fully equipped runs up to 30 tons, which is why the parking surface and any underlying structural considerations matter for site selection.

Delivery timelines depend on unit availability, site readiness, and any state-specific regulatory requirements that need to be completed before scanning can begin. For planned rentals where the site and licensing are already in good shape, delivery typically runs 2 to 4 weeks. For emergency situations, faster delivery is sometimes achievable but requires the regulatory pieces (RML, physicist inspection scheduling, source ordering) to be moving in parallel. For CON-state projects, the timeline is driven by the CON approval — once CON is in hand, delivery follows quickly.

Amber handles all of it. Our drivers transport the trailer to your facility and position it precisely where it needs to go. Once on site, we set up the ADA-compliant patient lift, ramps, expandable sides if applicable, and any other access modifications needed for your patient workflow. Our engineers commission the scanner, work with your team to verify it meets OEM image-quality specifications, validate hot lab equipment, and confirm full PACS integration before billing starts. At the end of the rental term, we coordinate removal, disconnect, and transport — leaving your site exactly as we found it.

Yes. Site planning is included in every mobile PET/CT rental and starts immediately after contract signing. The PET/CT site planning conversation is more involved than mobile MRI or mobile CT because of the regulatory layer — we coordinate with your facilities team on the placement, with your radiation safety officer on the licensing requirements, with your IT team on PACS connectivity, and with your nuclear medicine staff on the radiopharmacy logistics. The goal is to have everything in place when the trailer arrives so scanning can begin without delay.

Both options are available. A dry lease means you provide your own ARRT-certified nuclear medicine technologists — common for hospitals and imaging centers with existing nuclear medicine staff that handle the PET/CT workflow seamlessly. A turnkey solution means we arrange the technologist staffing along with the equipment — useful for facilities adding PET/CT for the first time and not yet ready to recruit and credential dedicated nuclear medicine staff. PET/CT specifically requires nuclear medicine technologist credentials (NMT, CNMT, or equivalent) rather than general radiology tech credentials, so verify your staff have the right qualifications before opting for dry lease.

Yes. Applications training for your nuclear medicine technologist team is included in every rental. The training covers scanner controls, PET/CT imaging protocols, hot lab workflow on the mobile unit, dose calibrator quality control, patient positioning, image quality review, and any platform-specific procedures. Training is typically two to three days on-site at the start of the rental, with follow-up sessions available if needed.

Industry-standard uptime guarantees for mobile PET/CT run 95 percent or higher, and a reputable provider should put that in writing. Mobile PET/CT downtime is particularly costly because it affects scheduled oncology patients who may have come from a distance for the scan, and rescheduling has clinical implications beyond just the lost revenue. Always ask any provider for their actual fleet uptime history, not just their guaranteed minimum. We are happy to share our track record on request.

Full preventative maintenance on every component of the trailer is included — the PET/CT scanner, the hot lab equipment, the trailer’s HVAC, electrical, and mechanical systems, the patient lift and ramps, and everything in between. Maintenance is performed on a scheduled basis throughout the rental term, and any issues are resolved at no additional cost. PET-specific maintenance items like cold head service, helium top-offs, detector tuning, and dose calibrator QC support are all included.

Every rental includes 24/7 technical support — on-call engineers who can troubleshoot remotely or dispatch a technician depending on the issue. PET/CT downtime has urgency that extends beyond what most imaging modalities face because the radiopharmaceutical for that day’s patients is already on its way (or already on site) and has a 110-minute half-life. The expectation is rapid response, and a credible provider should be willing to commit to specific response times in writing.

Yes. Full PACS integration is standard, and our team handles the configuration, connectivity testing, and DICOM verification before scanning begins. The mobile scanner communicates with your PACS exactly the way a fixed scanner would — images route automatically from the scanner to your archive, and your radiologists read studies through their normal workflow. Modality worklist integration with your RIS is also configured so patient scheduling flows correctly between systems.

Yes, with the right operational planning. A modern mobile PET/CT can typically handle 8 to 12 patients per day, with throughput driven by the same factors as a fixed PET/CT — scanner acquisition time, uptake room capacity, hot lab dispensing efficiency, and your technologist workflow. Higher daily volumes are achievable with optimized scheduling and protocols. The capacity limit on a mobile PET/CT is rarely the scanner itself; it is usually the uptake room count, which is fixed by trailer size.

The trailer typically includes a dedicated patient uptake room where patients rest quietly for 60 to 90 minutes after FDG injection while the radiotracer distributes through the body. The uptake room is shielded, comfortably furnished with a reclining chair or stretcher, and equipped with audio and video monitoring so your technologist can monitor patients without entering the room. Patient prep — IV access, blood glucose check, weight measurement — happens either inside the mobile unit or in a prep space inside your building, depending on the trailer configuration and your facility’s workflow. We work with your team during site planning to map out the full patient flow.

Three reasons. First, we have been in the medical imaging equipment business since 1995 — we buy, sell, rent, and service PET/CT systems every day, which means we know each platform intimately, including all the platform-specific quirks that show up in the field. Second, our service and engineering teams are in-house — when you call with an issue, you reach the people who actually know your unit, not a switchboard that routes you to a third party. Third, our pricing is transparent. Every quote breaks out the monthly rate, the transportation costs, the setup and removal fees, and what is included versus what is separate (like radiopharmaceuticals and calibration sources) — no surprises at the back end. PET/CT projects have enough moving parts already; the financial structure should not be one of them.

Reach out to our team at AmberUSA.com or call our Orlando headquarters at 407-509-6739. We start every PET/CT engagement with a consultation that covers your clinical needs, your patient volume projections, your existing licensing status, your timeline, and your site. From there, we put together a custom quote covering the scanner platform, the rental term, and a project timeline that accounts for licensing, physicist inspection, and source ordering. There is no obligation to move forward — the goal of the first conversation is to figure out whether a mobile PET/CT rental is the right answer for your situation in the first place. Ready to Talk Mobile PET/CT? Whether you are launching a new PET/CT service line, replacing an aging fixed system during a renovation, expanding oncology capacity to meet growing demand, or piloting theranostics workflows for the first time, Amber Diagnostics has been delivering mobile PET/CT solutions to hospitals, imaging centers, oncology programs, and cardiology practices for years. Our team will walk through your situation with you, navigate the regulatory and licensing requirements alongside your radiation safety team, and build a quote tailored to your clinical and financial needs. Call our Orlando headquarters at 407-509-6739, visit AmberUSA.com, or email our rental team directly to start the conversation. Most initial consultations take 30 minutes and give you a clear picture of cost, timeline, regulatory path, and equipment options for your specific project. All information in this FAQ reflects general industry practice and Amber’s standard rental approach as of 2026. Specific terms, pricing, regulatory requirements, and availability vary based on location, equipment selection, rental duration, state radiation control program requirements, and current market conditions. Final shielding specifications must be calculated and stamped by a qualified medical physicist for each installation site.