Oswego Hospital Has Advanced Open MRI

            Oswego Hospital has installed the area’s first open bore MRI that offers more comfort to both claustrophobic and larger patients while providing physicians with clearer, high quality images.

            The new open bore MRI, (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) allows most scans to be completed with the patient’s head outside the unit. “Patients who may not like that closed in feeling will find the open bore MRI offers a much more comfortable experience,” said Oswego Health Manager of Medical Imaging Kevin Kain. “The scans also take less time. For those scans that do require the patient’s head to be inside the unit, there is nearly two feet of open space.”

            The new MRI also allows for a patient that weighs up to 520 pounds to be safely and comfortably scanned. “Our larger patients now have a comfortable option,” Kain said.

            According to Kain, because the scanner is a high-field 1.5 Tesla unit,  physicians will find the open bore MRI provides them with much better images than a standard low-field open MRI. “Physicians will have clearer and shaper images that will assist them in providing an accurate patient diagnosis.”

            The new open MRI, a Siemens Espree, will be available to patients beginning February 1^st. Oswego Health has partnered with Alliance Imaging, the largest provider of advanced outpatient diagnostic imaging services in the United States, to provide the MRI equipment. An MRI provides images of soft tissues without using an x-ray.

Oswego Healthcare system includes the Oswego Hospital, The Manor at Seneca Hill, a skilled nursing facility; Springside at Seneca Hill, a retirement living community; an urgent care center in Fulton, as well as health services centers in Mexico, Parish and now Phoenix. For more information, call (315) 349-5500 or visit oswegohealth.org.