New MRI delivered to UHS Wilson Medical Center

UHS took a great step forward on Wednesday, January 24 with the delivery of the new inpatient magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to UHS Wilson Medical Center.

Critical to the UHS Wilson Project, the new Siemens Sola (1.5 Tesla) MRI machine will be a huge boost to patient care at UHS Wilson Medical Center. The device will scan patients faster, improving efficiency & hospital throughput, all contributing to an improved patient experience.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine uses the magnetic properties of hydrogen and its interaction with both a very strong magnetic field and radiofrequency waves to produce highly detailed, 2D and 3D images of the organs and structures of the body. The most commonly imaged body parts are: brain, spine, joints (hips, knees, ankles), abdomen, and pelvis.

The addition of the MRI to UHS Wilson will eliminate the need to transport Wilson inpatients to the Harrison Street MRI. This in turn will improve the patient experience by decreasing wait times due to transport, allowing for fewer missed appointments. This will also give staff a controlled setting to image critical or complex patients, an additional tool for clinicians to use in diagnosis and treatment. As the program develops, it will give our staff the ability to perform more complex procedures, including patients requiring sedation, critically ill/injured patients that are too sick to be transported to Johnson City MRI and patients with advanced cardiac implants.

Once up and running, the inpatient MRI will run six days a week with on-call staff available outside of normal operational hours for emergency MRI needs.