PRINEVILLE – Crook County residents needing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) exam no longer have to drive to Bend.

A mobile MRI unit, housed in a 48-foot tractor trailer, is scheduled to park outside Pioneer Memorial Hospital once a week beginning this month. The hospital has contracted with MRI Mobile of Boise, Idaho, to bring the services to people in the county.

”We’re always looking at ways to bring services here so people don’t have to head out of town,” said Don Wee, the hospital’s executive director.

The hospital also has specialty doctors, such as cardiologists and neurologists, make regular visits for the same reason.

Doctors use MRI scans to diagnose many conditions, from injuries and disorders of tendons, ligaments, cartilage and bone marrow to disorders of the brain and nervous system.

The machines use a magnet, radio waves, a receiver coil and computers to produce two- or three-dimensional images of an area inside the patient’s body.

Ken Tracy, the hospital’s radiology manager, said the MRI machines provide a more accurate picture of the body without being invasive or using radiation. Michael Cacchillo, marketing director for MRI Mobile, said the company serves many rural hospitals in seven states including Montana, Washington and Oregon. A mobile unit visits St. Charles Medical Center-Redmond and the hospital in John Day.

In Bend, Central Oregon Magnetic Resonance Imaging has MRI machines at Central Oregon Radiology Associates and St. Charles Medical Center-Bend, and Advanced Diagnostics Imaging also has an MRI.

The MRI Mobile units come with the computers, machine and a radiology technologist.

Once the image is created, the technologist with the mobile unit electronically sends a digital copy of the scanned image to the patient’s radiologist and leaves a film copy at the hospital.

The Prineville hospital provided a concrete pad and power hook-up.

Wee said the hospital spent about $5,000 to create the space for the mobile MRI unit and then pays the company a fee for each patient that receives a scan. Contracting for the mobile unit is far less expensive than purchasing an MRI machine, which can cost millions of dollars.

He estimated the mobile MRI unit will serve eight to 10 patients each visit. Appointments are available on either Tuesday or Saturday, depending on the week. Insurance covers many MRI exams.

The hospital won’t be buying its own MRI machine in the near future, Wee said – though, he added, it may be a possibility if the machines become more affordable.

Kelly Kearsley can be reached at 541-383-0348 or at kkearsley@bendbulletin.com.