Daily Press | St. Joseph Health, St. Mary Continues to Expand with New MRI Facility

APPLE VALLEY — A large construction crane on the campus of St. Joseph Health, St. Mary has caught the attention of commuters traveling near the medical facility off Highway 18.

Crews used the crane to move a relocatable medical building that will soon become a magnetic resonance imaging facility that includes electromagnetic shielding, equipment room, scanning and staging areas.

The large, movable building is situated on the west side of the campus near the medical center’s emergency entrance near Kasota Road.

Medical staff and visitors to the hospital, along with those in the area, stopped to view the activity on the hospital campus.

“There’s been a lot of activity going on at the hospital over the last few years,” said Clarence Scott, a frequent visitor to the hospital. “They recently opened an urgent care building to take care of patients.”

St. Joseph Health and St. Mary High Desert Medical Group unveiled its new St. Mary High Desert Urgent Care Center during a ribbon cutting and open house in December. The new two-story, 5,000-square-foot facility is located on the east side of the campus.

The mobile MRI facility was constructed over the last few months in Wisconsin by Healthcare Design & Construction (HDC), an Innovation Institute healthcare company which is member-owned by Providence St. Joseph Health.

The new 750-square-foot MRI facility was installed at the medical facility on Tuesday, with the new MRI unit expected to arrive at the end of July and ready for patient care by September, according to St. Joseph Health, St. Mary spokesperson Brianne Underwood.

The Orange County-based HDC was established through the acquisition of the Western Division of PDC Facilities, Inc. in March 2013. For over three decades, HDC has focused on construction within acute care and outpatient facilities, especially through design-build delivery method.