CEDAR CITY — Intermountain Healthcare’s new Cedar City Imaging Center celebrated its grand opening last week.

The facility is located at 1333 N. Main St. #7, in the northeast portion of the building that also houses other Intermountain outpatient clinics such as Valley View Family Medicine and Neuro and Pediatric Rehabilitation. 

Although the imaging center has actually been open since the first of March, its formal grand opening, which included a public open house, was delayed due to COVID-19 protocols.

Imaging Center Director Darin Day told Cedar City News the new facility includes a CT scanner, two 3D mammogram tomography machines, an ultrasound machine and a phlebotomy lab. Additionally, an MRI machine is available three days each week, he said.

Day noted that mammography was an area where increased capacity was particularly needed.

“We only had one camera, and now we’ve expanded to two,” he said. “The idea was we want to get more women in to have their screening mammograms. The time to the next available appointment was so far out for the women that a lot of them just got frustrated.”

Doubling the capacity, Day said, makes it easier for such screenings to be done in a timely fashion.

“If we can catch a cancer early on, we can treat it,” he said, which thereby increases the patient’s chances of survival.

Additionally, Day noted the CT scanner located inside Cedar City Hospital is typically busy with trauma and emergency room patients. 

“We needed a second CT scanner,” he said, adding that locating the second machine in the remodeled Imaging Center facility across the street turned out to be a more cost-effective option than building a new building and/or adding on to the hospital itself.

“By taking some of the volume away from the hospital, that gives the emergency room faster access to (the hospital’s) scanner,” he said. 

Additionally, the mobile MRI lab, which is in a trailer parked outside the Imaging Center on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, will also enable patients to get screened quicker, Day added.

“We have a really nice MRI over in the hospital, but it’s full clear until 8 o’clock at night, and it’s full all day long,” Day said. “This will allow us to get patients in much quicker so that they can pursue their treatment.”

It’s all part of streamlining diagnostic tests and screening procedures for patients, Day noted.

“The idea behind this imaging center, whether it be the lab or any of these imaging modalities, is that we can get a patient in, get them registered, and have their procedure and out with minimal steps,” Day said. “It’s easy to get in. It’s easily accessible. And it’s fast.”

Day said the new center’s accessibility has also been appreciated by patients.

“People are happy because they don’t have to park as far,” he said. “It’s just a few steps to get in the building, and a few steps to get back to the modalities and have their scans.”

The imaging center’s operating hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call the center’s main office at 435-868-6250.

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