Pulaski Memorial Hospital is asking for the county’s financial assistance to help pay for its new MRI building. Director of Business Development Gregg Malott told the Pulaski County Commissioners Monday the hospital is asking for nearly $800,000 out of the county’s Cumulative Building Fund, between now and 2027.
He explained the new building has already been built. “For years, we have had – at that time it was two days a week at the hospital – basically, an MRI that’s housed in a mobile semi-type trailer,” he said. “That was getting to the point to where we had about 35 percent of the MRIs that were being ordered at the hospital had to be sent someplace else because that trailer was only there, I think, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and as we all know, not everyone needs an MRI just on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
Malott said the upgrade made sense financially. “It was the cost of a lower-quality mobile MRI that was only there two days a week and at the end it was three, versus having a state-of-the-art 1.5 Tesla MRI that’s fixed, that gets much better quality images, has a larger aperture or opening for patients that are getting larger as we progress through the years, and also being able to get those diagnoses to people faster.”
Malott explained that the Cumulative Building Fund has been used for past hospital projects, including a chiller replacement and the construction of a new mainenance building. Under the new proposal, the hospital would get $48,000 every six months for the MRI building. That’s the same amount the hospital had been getting for the chiller project, until it was paid off last year.
Before allowing the funding request to proceed, though, the commissioners wanted to make sure there’s enough money available in the Cumulative Building Fund. They’ll revisit the issue at a future meeting.
