Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital and Corvallis Radiology will open a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) center on the hospital campus in Lebanon in late October. The center will be called East Linn MRI.

The magnet for the new MRI was lowered into place last week.

Currently, the hospital shares a mobile MRI unit

with Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital (SPCH) in Newport and Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital (SNLH) in Lincoln City.

The mobile MRI unit is at SLCH four days a week. With its own fixed unit, the hospital will be able to schedule exams sooner for patients. Imaging staff will be able to perform studies they had been sending out to other hospitals within the Samaritan system.

MRIs use a high-powered magnetic field and radio waves to obtain high-quality images of a patient's internal organs and systems. The images are more detailed than from an X-Ray or CT scan, which allows physicians to make better evaluations of the patient's condition.

This unit is the first of five new MRI units that Samaritan will bring online throughout the mid-valley and coast over the next year.

Corvallis Radiology, which operates the mobile unit, will participate in the Lebanon venture with SLCH to operate the new 3,425-square-foot center. Samaritan will own the facilities.

Clark/Kjos Architects of Portland designed the building to match the look of the rest of the hospital. Dorman Construction of Eugene is the general contractor.