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New X-ray center ‘state-of-the-art’
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Southwoods Imaging on Market Street in Boardman recently had a soft opening. The new X-ray center will have a grand opening in May.
By Kalea Hall
Boardman
Ed Muransky, head of The Surgical Hospital at Southwoods, wanted to provide convenience to Mahoning Valley residents.
After witnessing the difficulty of needing a scan or multiple scans, he decided to develop Southwoods Imaging — a “state-of-the-art” $10 million facility at 7623 Market St.
“It was a nice way to give back to the community with the amount of scans needed,” Muransky said. This way, “people don’t have to travel to Cleveland for a major scan.”
The roughly 17,000-square-foot, brand-new building had a soft opening this week and will have a grand opening in May. The image center is an outsource of The Surgical Hospital at Southwoods.
Brock Builders of Boardman was the general contractor on the two-year project.
The new facility has a 3T (Tesla) magnetic resonance imaging scanner.
“This is the current state of technology, and so it gives very, very clear and precise images,” said Gary Lockhart, chief financial officer of the Surgical Hospital at Southwoods.
Also part of the equipment is a fixed-positron emission tomography scanner that always will be in the building, and a 64-slice CT (computed tomography) scan.
“The number of slices has to do with the level of detail and quality of the image,” Lockhart said.
There also are multiple digital mammography scanners and ultrasounds in addition to a digital X-ray and fluoroscopy, a DEXA (Dual X-ray Absorptiometry) scan to measure bone density, and nuclear-medicine equipment.
Appointments are by physician referrals.
“The people who work with this are really impressed that we have these pieces,” Muransky said.
The new X-ray location employs about 40 people. The Hitchcock Imaging and Genesis Breast Center, which was a part of Southwoods, was closed, and alternatives for that building on West Boulevard in Boardman are being looked at.
“We really outgrew it,” Muransky said.
In addition to Southwoods Imaging, there also are doctors’ offices under construction that are not expected to be done until the summer.