Wamego Health Center is close to completing a new MRI suite which began construction on September 29.
The MRI scanner facility is being funded by the Wamego Hospital Foundation and patrons of the community. While the projected completion date for the scanning suite is April 1, the hospital is engaging in rigorous safety testing before opening to the public.
“They have a very strict checklist of items they have to go through to make 100% sure our safety is always paramount,” says administrator Brian Howells. “It will be about four weeks of checking and double checking, and we are going to bring in a physicist to triple check and just make sure the MRI is up and running.”
The imaging suite replaces a mobile MRI unit that had previously come to Wamego twice a week by trailer. The fixture allows for greater radiological imaging in the city and provides further assistance in emergency situations when MRI imaging might be necessary.
Howells comments that the relationship between the city of Wamego, Ascension Via Christi, and Wamego Health center is a unique and positive one.
“It’s unique in that the city continues to own the building and the land, and the hospital in Manhattan runs the operation.” Howells continues, “It’s just been a terrific joint venture, a wonderful partnership, that I don’t think either entity could have done on their own.”
MRI machines are built around powerful magnets, utilizing electromagnetism to generate detailed images of the human body. The ribbon cutting for the new facility is tentatively set for Friday, May 3.
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