MVH opens, expands Rostraver Imaging
Holly Tonini
Monongahela Valley Hospital
Monongahela Valley Hospital (MVH) expanded its outpatient diagnostic imaging services by opening Rostraver Imaging last year.
Monongahela Valley Hospital (MVH) expanded its outpatient diagnostic imaging services by opening Rostraver Imaging last year.
The facility at 100 Peasant Village Lane in Belle Vernon opened in October with an open magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, but is being renovated for the addition of a closed MRI that is just as powerful as the unit in the hospital, said Thomas Cullen, MVH senior vice president of strategic development.
“The equipment at that location is the same that we have at the hospital,” Cullen said. “It’s the same as having those procedures handled at the hospital.”
The cost of the new center, including the renovation, is $1.5 million.
MVH renovated additional space in the building to make room for the new MRI unit, a new control room and dressing rooms. The new unit will be operational on April 14, Cullen said.
The Siemens Symphony 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner at Rostraver Imaging uses one of the most powerful magnets in the industry and is standard equipment in hospitals, he said.
Installing the Tesla in the outpatient facility allows patients to get MRIs without the wait that can occur at the hospital, where emergency patients receive priority, he said.
“It’s going to be a top notch MRI center for our health system,” Cullen said. “It’s a hospital grade, hospital strength magnet we’re providing in the outpatient atmosphere. We feel we have a top notch MRI diagnostic center at that building.”
Having the same equipment at the hospital and Rostraver Imaging makes staffing easier, he added.
MRIs as well as CT scans, ultrasound, mammography and X-rays taken at Rostraver Imaging will be transmitted through a fiber optic cable to the hospital where doctors provide the results to the patient’s physician, Cullen said.
“Were a totally filmless facility – all digital. We don’t have any film anymore,” he said.
Closed MRI units create images with greater detail than open MRI units, but some patients become claustrophobic in closed units, he said.
MVH’s other outpatient imaging center at HealthPLEX Imaging in Willow Point Plaza in Rostraver Township also uses a fiber optic line to transmit MRIs to the hospital. HealthPLEX is about a half mile from Rostraver Imaging, with an open MRI, but not a closed unit.
“It’s just like those two facilities are on campus here. It makes for a very seamless transition between the hospital and these two significant off site facilities we have in Rostraver,” Cullen said.
HealthPLEX has been successful and has grown since it opened 12 year ago, which prompted the hospital to open Rostraver Imaging, he said.
The new center is intended to be convenient for residents living in Rostraver Township, Belle Vernon, West Newton, Perryopolis, New Stanton and Elizabeth Township, he said.
Rostraver Imaging is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.