The Install of the Two MRI Machines — A Highly- Anticipated Event
The SIEMENS MAGNETOM Aera MRI Scanner is slowly and carefully guided out of the lift. Once in the staging area, it will be turned toward the camera (east) where it will begin the slow roll down the hall. At the first right (south), the scanner will be turned and rolled down the hall, approximately 25-feet to the MRI (east) scan room. The scanner will be rolled in the opening in the Medicine Preparation room and on into the MRI (east) scan room.
Preparation for the install of the MRI machine scheduled for Sunday August 16, 2020, on the second floor was began several days ago. Actually, preparation began as the rooms were framed. The two MRI rooms located in the southwest quadrant of the building are located in such a way that minimal wall demolition will be required. In addition, the two walls on the east and west sides were constructed so that the metal studs and spacer blocks could be slid out of the way, opening up the walls to roll the machines in each of the rooms. In addition, a few window panels (approximately six) must be removed from the second story of the northwest side of the building, revealing the staging area where the crates will be hoisted. A crane will be brought in on the day of the install to lift the crates of equipment up to the second floor, where a team will be at the ready to receive the boxes. The crates for the equipment going into the east room will have a greater distance to travel. Once the crates for the east MRI room are hoisted to the second floor staging area, the crew will navigate the equipment some 30 feet down the hall to the left. At the first right, the team will rotate the crates 90 degrees (right) and roll them approximately 30 feet to where the crew will negotiate the crates through the two opening and position the equipment in the east room. Once all of the crates have been placed, a crew will begin securing the walls of the east room. The equipment for the west MRI room will have less distance to travel. The crates will be wheeled down the north/south corridor approximately 35-feet to where the openings were made. At this point the equipment will be maneuvered through the two openings at the left and placed in the west MRI room.
Today, I was briefed as to the areas I would be allowed and not allowed during specific unloading sequences. All during the week and the day of the unloading and install, various teams involved will be briefed and go through specific orientations to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Before There Was an MRI Scan Room
Make Ready: Preparing the Staging Areas and Wall Removal
Jack Kay III, superintendent in charge of the MRI install explains where the protective railing should be placed. Behind the red tape where the staging area will be is “off limits.”By the following day, the wooden barricade (1) had been built and anchored to the floor. The first window panel had been removed (2). I was told that anyone working in the staging area must wear a safety harness when the wood railings have been removed. Once they have been placed back on the end posts, the safety harness is not required.The window panels are being removed. Five more panels to the right are to be removed to open the staging area where the crates of equipment will be lifted.One of the laborers stands in the opening in the east wall of the east MRI Room. Jack Kay III, superintendent of the MRI install talks about notifying an electrician to remove the flexible cable that spans the opening about chest high. The door jam A view of the west MRI room (upper left) from the west hallway.
The Delivery Routes for the Two MRI Machines
The following images show the hallways the two MRI machines will be moved. The crates for the East MRI room will be maneuvered through an east/west, north/south, east/west route. The equipment for the west MRI room will have a straight, north/south, route from the staging area, and an east/west (left) turn into the west MRI room.
The Delivery Route For the East MRI
The Delivery Route For the West MRI
August 16, 2020 — The Day of the Install
At 7:01 AM on August 16, 2020, two trucks loaded with MRI equipment were parked along the north curb on Prospect Ave. Trucks loaded with the crane and crane parts were parked along the south curb.Trucks on Prospect Ave: The truck with the crates and boxes is loaded with all of the equipment for the west MRI room. The truck with all of the equipment for the east MRI room is in the staging area.This truck is loaded with the SIEMENS MAGNETOM Aera MRI Scanner and equipment for the west scan room. The truck loaded with the equipment and scanner for the east room has backed into the staging area where it is being unloaded.With the removal of the tarp that is being folded, the SIEMENS MAGNETOM Aera MRI scanner is exposed. Much of the related equipment has been removed and sorted in the staging area, which is out of the frame to the right.A closeup look at the SIEMENS MAGNETOM Aera MRI scanner.There is a lot of action going in this image! To the left (lower corner) the SIEMENS MAGNETOM Aera MRI scanner is being prepared. In the center of the image, anchor bolts are being attached to the concrete floor, which will be used to secure the loading deck to the second floor before the MRI equipment can be unloaded. To the upper right, a Mercy Air helicopter lands on the south helipad.Boxes and crates are being loaded on the deck. Center right (in the sun) is the patient table.Everyone held their breath at the first of the equipment was lifted to the second floor and securely anchored.The first of the equipment, an MRI computer cabinet, is offloaded from the deck.The MRI computer cabinet is rolled down the hallways and into the MRI computer and electrical room.Boxes of the MRI equipment are being taken to the MRI control room.Boxes are being stacked in the control rooms.The MRI equipment movers are backlit as they carefully roll another computer cabinet down the hall.The Triple-E Machinery crew is preparing to offload the MRI scanner on to the transport deck. The straps have to be removed from the deck and attached to the MRI scanner. After the scanner is offloaded onto to the deck the straps will be removed from the scanner and reattached to the deck.The SIEMENS’ MAGNETOM Aera MRI scanner is centered on the loading deck to be transported to the staging area on the second floor. The loading deck carrying the MRI machine approaches the second floor. Landing on the lip of the staging area must be precise to properly anchor the deck.
The Slow and Arduous Journey From the Loading Deck to the MRI Scan Room
Once the MRI scanner left the loading deck on the second floor, it took 45-minutes over a distance of approximately 50-feet to reach the opening made in the MRI Medicine Preparation room. From that location, the MRI machine would be turned and rolled through the prep room, and into the MRI scan room. As the scanner made its journey down the corridors, I thought, a slow, somber jazz song so often played at a New Orleans funeral might be apropos. This noteworthy occasion demanded precise and quiet attention to detail: Choreographed footsteps and the wheels’ rotation took the machine closer to its resting place in the MRI scan room.
In the East MRI Scan Room
Setup Begins
With the MRI Scanner secured on its anchors and the patient table in place, the setup begins.
On Thursday, August 20, 2020, there was this sound coming from both MRI scan rooms.
After graduate school Dennis accepted a position at Loma Linda University. He worked there for 42 years in the areas of administration and financial management, also teaching accounting and management to dietetic students at the School of Public Health. Through the years Dennis has chronicled the growth of the campus, including the construction of the Drayson Center and the Centennial Complex and the razing of Gentry Gym. He is the author of "The Mound City Chronicles: A Pictorial History of Loma Linda University, A Health Sciences Institution 1905 - 2005." dEp 09.30.2016 🔨
