The much-anticipated delivery of Mount Desert Island Hospital’s new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) building concluded with the successful placement of the structure adjacent to the hospital’s Breast Health Center entrance at 10 p.m. on Thursday, July 15. The building first arrived at the Bar Harbor ballfield where it was transferred to a smaller vehicle for its final trek to the hospital campus where it was met with a crane and set in its new location.
“We can’t express enough how thankful we are to our exceptional delivery driver, Mike, our local public safety team, state police, the Maine Department of Transportation and our entire community who rallied around us to bring this vital piece of equipment home,” said Chrissi Maguire, MDI Hospital President/CEO. “Because of the support of this outstanding community and our generous donors, we are bringing one of Maine’s greenest, most advanced MRI units to our region.”
The building’s arrival marks a milestone in the hospital’s multi-year effort to install a more permanent, fixed-place MRI unit to replace the temporary MRI trailer that has long occupied their parking lot. The new building was originally scheduled to be delivered the afternoon of Wednesday, July 14, but following rerouting due to construction, it was hung up on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. Delivery resumed the next morning, with a delay in Northeast Harbor for a tire change as the structure made its way to Bar Harbor.
In its next and final phase, the Ambition MRI unit will be enclosed and incorporated into MDI Hospital’s main campus building in Bar Harbor. Once installation is complete, patients will be able to receive a broader range of MRI scans nearer to home, including prostate, TMJ, abdomen, pelvis, dynamic liver and thoracic.
The Philips Ingenia Ambition MRI system features near-silent technology; faster scan times; and patient-adjustable lighting, image projections, and soundscapes, all to increase patient comfort. Its novel micro-cooling technology requires only a negligible amount of liquid helium for cooling, which will make it far more energy-efficient than previous MRIs.
Numerous generous funders have joined together to provide support for the Fixed-Place MRI Project; major donors include the Davis Family Foundation, Bar Harbor Bank and Trust, First National Bank, Dick Wolf, Jonathan Winthrop, Donna Karlson and Arthur Greif, Arthur Blank and Chrissi Maguire.
About Mount Desert Island Hospital
Mount Desert Island Hospital serves a close-knit island and surrounding communities through a 25-bed critical access facility in Bar Harbor and a network of area health centers—all designed to provide comprehensive healthcare for residents and visitors. Since it was established in 1897, the nonprofit hospital has grown into a premier rural healthcare organization with a retirement community and six primary care health centers, as well as a full-service behavioral health center and a dental clinic. The hospital’s Emergency Department, a critical link in Downeast Maine's trauma delivery system, serves the Mount Desert Island community 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. MDI Hospital received a five-star rating, the highest awarded, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2020. In addition, the organization’s inpatient, outpatient, emergency and surgical care services have been consistently recognized by Avatar International, the Leapfrog Group, the National Rural Health Association, Harvard Pilgrim and Healthgrades.
