Five-Day MRI Services to be Offered at Richmond Memorial
| Date Posted: 9/25/2013
ROCKINGHAM – On an average day, eight to 10 MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) studies will be performed at FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital.
Most will involve orthopaedic patients, although an occasional test will be ordered to diagnose or rule out stroke or other neurological disorders.
Currently, MRI is available only four days a week at Richmond Memorial, but that will change within the next couple of weeks with the availability of a newly acquired, state-of-the-art GE Signa HDxT 1.5 Tesla MRI machine.
“Increasing the time that the MRI unit is at the Richmond campus will allow a greater flexibility for scheduling our patients and provide a better degree of continuity of care for our inpatients,” says Scott Hees, D.O., the board certified radiologist who reads the MRI studies at Richmond Memorial.
MRI is a test that uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body. In many cases, MRI gives different information about structures in the body than can be seen with X-ray, ultrasound or CT (computed tomography). It can also show problems that cannot be seen with other imaging methods.
The $1,648,000 Richmond Memorial project includes the purchase of the new machine as well as facility renovations to enclose access to MRI area. A $250,000 grant from the Richmond Community Foundation will assist with the cost.
Currently in the design phase, the renovation project should be completed within six to nine months.
“We are very pleased to be able to offer five-day-a-week MRI services at Richmond Memorial Hospital,” says RMH President John Jackson. “MRI is a valuable tool in our arsenal of our Imaging resources, and our new machine will assure quality images to assist in the diagnosis of a variety of orthopaedic and neurological conditions.”
FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital is a division of FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital.
