CRMC Committee Approves Additional Cost For MRI Project

Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s (CRMC) MRI project will cost an additional $829,731.

Paul Korth is the CEO of CRMC.

“We had a little bit of a change order because some of the construction cost have gone up,” Korth said. “We’re also having to do some more to the existing rooms that these are going to be in. Those rooms have got to have a little bit more significant cost of construction than we first estimated. It’s got to do with the lead shielding and copper shielding for the MRI and CT room.”

The CRMC Finance Committee approved the change order during Tuesday night’s meeting. The full board of trustees will consider the additional cost during Thursday’s meeting.

The hospital’s board of trustees approved the $2.5 million MRI project a few months ago. Korth said the hospital decided to take on the project after beginning a cardiac imaging program last year.

“We hired a new cardiologist, Dr. Ashley Nickerson, and she specializes is cardiac MRI’s,” Korth said. “It’s a more non-invasive way to detect cardiac diseases and there’s many procedures that can be done from those MRI’s.”

The CT project will be finished later this calendar year. Korth said the MRI project will wrap up during the first quarter of 2020.