Patients at Butler Memorial Hospital will soon be able to benefit from the latest in imaging technology, as the hospital began installing a new MRI machine on Monday.

Dr. Tom Raraigh, the director of radiology and cardiology at Butler Health System, said workers moved the machine into the hospital Monday, but it will be about three weeks before imaging technicians can start using it.

Between now and then, the room housing the new machine will have to be finished, and engineers have hundreds of cables to connect and a week of testing to ensure everything is perfect.

Once that's done, Jeff Mechling, the hospital's chief MRI technologist, said patients and doctors will have access to a larger MRI machine that will help the hospital treat more claustrophobic and bariatric patients, as well as do more work with brain imaging and patients who suffer from strokes, multiple sclerosis and brain tumors.

The $2 million project produced dramatic visuals at the hospital in March, as workers cut a hole in the side of the building and used a crane to remove components of the old MRI machine, which was about a decade old. It was traded back to Siemens Medical, and the hospital began using a mobile MRI lab attached to the hospital to provide imaging for outpatient, emergency room and inpatient services.

The new machine, which is worth about $1.5 million, will help the hospital expand its neurovascular procedures, improve its breast MRI program and enable patients to receive cardiac MRIs. It's also 10 centimeters wider than the old machine and has a table capable of holding 550 pounds — 200 pounds more than the old machine.

Mechling said that the hospital performs anywhere from 15 to 30 MRIs each day, and the life span of the machine's magnet is between 20 and 25 years, though he noted that imaging technology is always changing, and the machine is capable of being upgraded if new hardware or software becomes available.