In the MRI suite at St. Joseph’s Candler Hospital in Savannah, Ga., the numbers add up to a quantifiable success story.

The Green Mountain State is in the news for more than the entry of Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders into the 2016 race for president. A pilot healthcare-delivery project there experiments with removing a rule currently requiring patients to get pre-approval from their health plans for MRIs. 

At a time when 85% of physicians are viewing diagnostic images via electronic medical records, the opportunity is ripe to realize true enterprise imaging. More of those docs should be saying goodbye to walled-off image silos and hello to a centralized, always-open image depot. 

The medical imaging community is buzzing over the GE MRI recall—by now, no other words are needed to name it—and the chatter will probably continue for a long time to come.

GE is recalling almost 13,000 MRI units, as the FDA has deemed them potentially deadly.

Serving the community of upstate New York’s Capital Region, Adirondack Radiology Associates (ARA) recently expanded patients’ access to state-of-the-art, high-field open bore MR imaging technology, replacing two systems, an older low-field open system and a closed 1.5T system, with the Hitachi Oasis high-field open MR at their Saratoga Imaging Center. Since the installation, ARA has experienced an increase in procedure volumes and patient satisfaction as well a reduction in costs. 

While MRI is often considered one of the safer imaging modalities due to its lack of ionizing radiation, other dangers remain for patients, with thermal burns being a chief concern. 

Among the many requirements a hospital must meet to achieve and maintain the designation of Critical Access Hospital (CAH), the hospital must be fairly remote and furnish 24-hour emergency care services seven days a week, using either on-site or on-call staff.