A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) center being installed on the Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital campus is expected to be operating by late October, according to hospital officials.
The center will be called East Linn MRI.
Currently, the hospital shares a mobile MRI unit with Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital (SPCH) in Newport and Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital (SNLH) in Lincoln City.
The mobile MRI unit is at SLCH four days a week.
The new center will provide superior imaging in a fixed location.
With its own fixed unit, the hospital will be able to schedule exams sooner for patients. Imaging staff will also be able to perform other studies that they had been sending out to other hospitals within the Samaritan system.
MRIs use a high-powered magnetic field and radio waves to obtain high-quality images of a patient’s internal organs and systems. The images are more detailed than from an X-Ray or CT scan, which allows physicians to make better evaluations of the patient’s condition.
This unit is the first of five new MRI units that Samaritan will bring online throughout the mid-valley and coast over the next year. Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis, Samaritan Albany General Hospital, SNLH and SPCH will have their units available in early 2009.
Corvallis Radiology, which operates the mobile unit, will participate in the Lebanon venture with SLCH to operate the new 3,425-square-foot center. Samaritan will own the facilities.
Clark/Kjos Architects of Portland designed the building to match the look of the rest of the hospital. Dorman Construction of Eugene is the general contractor.