Photo by Deb Gau Crews used a forklift to carefully transport the magnet for a new MRI unit through an opening in the wall at Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center on Monday. When it’s installed, the new MRI will allow for faster scans, with better-quality images that the hospital’s old MRI equipment.

MARSHALL — A big section of wall was gone in the imaging department at Avera Marshall Medical Center. But that was good news, Avera Marshall staff said Monday. A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner had arrived at the hospital — and the only way to get the scanner’s giant magnet into the building was to take out a wall.

Avera staff watched Monday morning as the MRI magnet was unloaded from a flatbed semi truck with a forklift and driven to an opening in the hospital wall. The transport crew had to do some careful measuring beforehand, to make sure the equipment would go through the opening. It looked like a tight fit, but Avera Marshall communications partner Stacy Neubeck said the magnet officially made it into the hospital by about 11 a.m.

The new MRI will replace an MRI unit that was about 15 years old, Neubeck said. The equipment is part of a $1.5 million project that included the costs of new technology, software, training and the construction work needed in order to move both the old and new MRI units.

An MRI scanner creates detailed images of the inside of a patient’s body. Instead of using radiation, like an X-ray or a CT scan, an MRI uses strong magnetic fields to make the images.

The process of replacing the MRI equipment at Avera Marshall has taken a few months, Neubeck said. In July, a wall in the imaging department was opened up to take out the old MRI unit. A mobile imaging unit parked in front of the hospital has been providing imaging services to patients since then.

Once the new MRI is installed, it will still take some time before it can be used for patients. First, the equipment needs to be tested, and Avera Marshall employees will need to be trained to use it. The wall the MRI came in through will also need to be closed back up.

The new MRI will have some benefits for patients, Neubeck said. The new MRI would be able to do faster scans with better-quality images. Faster equipment will also mean that the hospital will be able to do more scans in a day, and patients won’t have to spend as much time inside the machine.