Changes to MRI Services During Critical Care Building Construction

Editor’s note: This is the fifth and final part in a series of blog posts describing how the construction of Cincinnati Children’s new Critical Care Building will affect the MRI services in the Radiology Department. The previous posts described why the construction may impact our MRI services, how we are using physics and new technology to monitor for changes in image quality of our MRI scanners, an introduction to our new Erkenbrecher MRI Location, and an introduction to our new Saturday hours at Liberty Township. Today’s blog post describes temporary changes at our Burnet location.

If you have been anywhere near the Burnet Campus you have noticed a lot of construction around the hospital. Erkenbrecher Avenue has been closed off and our new Critical Care Building is being built along the north side of the hospital’s A and B locations. Since the new construction is happening right next to the Radiology Department, more specifically next to most of the MRI scanners, it will affect our ability to do MRI exams. Because of this we have put a lot of planning into how to deal with such a situation.

The effects will start in the first week of October 2018 and could continue through April 2019. During this time, we will use the MRI scanners in the Clinical Sciences Pavillon (T-building) for outpatients needing anesthesia. These studies will be limited to Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Patients and their families will come to the Radiology Department the same as always and they then will be escorted to the scanners in the T-building.

Photo: T-Building, Cincinnati Children’s Campus

For those outpatients who do not need the assistance of anesthesia, we will use the MRI scanners in our newly built Erkenbrecher MRI Location located at 3404 Burnet Avenue, across from the Ronald McDonald House. Directions to this building will be included in the itineraries sent out and/or given when we make our confirmation calls a few days before the scan is scheduled to take place. Parking is limited at this location, so families who have other appointments after their MRI scan will need to drive across the street to the main hospital parking garage after the scan is completed.

Photo: Second MRI scanner at Liberty Campus

To aid in this temporary interruption, we have also added a second MRI scanner to our hospital location in Liberty Township, and we have opened up the availability to scan children with anesthesia there on Saturdays. The two MRI scanners at the Liberty Campus are our newest state-of-the-art scanners and may be ideal for many of you who live on the north side of the city.

We realize that these changes will limit our flexibility. We will be performing detailed testing throughout the heavy digging and construction. These tests will allow us to measure the effect of the construction and open our normal MRI services as quickly as possible. We hope that all of our planning helps to ensure a smooth radiology experience for you and your family regardless of the construction’s impact on our department.

Contributed by Dr. Blaise Jones and edited by Tony Dandino, RT(MR).