Meridian Community College: MCC Graduate Launches New Mobile Imaging Business

Press release from Meridian Community College:

February 18, 2022

For Matt Haney, a 2013 graduate of Meridian Community College’s Radiologic Technology
Program, persistence is a trait that has always served him well.

Fresh out of Northeast Lauderdale High School in 2002, Haney enrolled in classes at
MCC. Undecided about a career path, he took day and night classes over the next several
years while working full-time jobs that ranged from retail to the construction industry.

“I went years just taking classes because I did not know what I wanted to do,” he
said. Finally, he ended up landing a job at Anderson Regional Medical Center as a
patient transporter in the Diagnostic Imaging Department.

“That is where I got my first interest in X-ray,” he said. 

Fascinated by radiology, he began taking pre-requisite classes to get into MCC’s Radiologic
Technology Program.

Haney wound up just outside the cut-off of the 15 students who were accepted into
the program during the first year he applied. The same thing happened in his second
year, too.

“On my third attempt in 2010, I thought, I am going to give up if I don’t make it
this time,” he laughed. “Well, on the third time, I got on the alternate list. So,
I thought, ‘well, that is better than nothing.’ Then, in the next few days, MCC called
me and said somebody had changed their mind, and I got accepted into the program.”
His persistence had paid off, a trait he encourages other students to show if they
fail to get into a competitive collegiate academic program on the first attempt.

“If you don’t go into a program the first time, don’t give up but keep applying,”
he said. “That will show the administration that you are really interested in the
program. You have to be persistent.”

Haney continued to show his unstoppable spirit throughout his time at MCC. He did
not progress from freshman to sophomore year in the Radiologic Technology Program,
so he was forced to reapply and repeat his freshman year. It turned out to be the
kickstart he needed.

“It put me a year behind, but I ended up graduating in 2013 with my associate of applied
science degree in Radiologic Technology,” he said.

Haney then took a job on the night shift at Rush Foundation Hospital, where he worked
as a student. Two years later, he moved to a day shift and began taking classes two
days a week at the University of South Alabama, where he earned his certificates in
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, and Computed Tomography, CT. 

A registered Radiologic Technologist with the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists,
or ARRT, Haney joined the diagnostic imaging staff at Anderson Regional Medical Center
in 2017. Later that same year, he accepted a job at Anderson’s MRI Center as a full-time
MRI Tech. He recently moved to a night position in X-ray to launch a new business
of his own, Mobile Imaging LLC.

Opened earlier this year, Mobile Imaging LLC provides diagnostic X-ray and electrocardiogram,
or EKG, services to nursing home and home health patients throughout Lauderdale, Clarke,
Kemper, Wayne, and Newton counties.

By offering the mobile service, patients do not have to go to a hospital or clinic,
he said. Instead, a report is read and faxed to the patient’s physician within an
hour.

Haney has experience in mobile diagnostic imaging, having previously worked five years
for another company that has since gone out of business. 

“Business has been surprisingly good with it being just one person to cover all of
these counties. I have been really busy,” Haney said of the mobile imaging start-up. 

“The people around here in Meridian know me, and they kind of want to use someone
who is local,” he added.

He and his wife, Emmi Haney, who works as a nurse for Meridian Medical Associates
clinic, have been married for six years and have two children: a son Grayson, 3, and
a daughter, Annleigh, who will be 2 in May. Besides a love of spending time with his
family, hunting, and dirt track racing, Haney is also a Mississippi certified volunteer
firefighter for the Clarkdale, Stonewall, and Rolling Creek Volunteer Fire Departments.

He recommends MCC for other students who are undecided about a career path or part-time
students. 

“I loved that MCC was located here at home so that I could take classes and still
work,” Haney said. “My teachers were great, and I learned a lot from them, things
that I use in my career field every day.”

This press release was produced by Meridian Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.