DERBY – Members of the city’s planning and zoning commission May 20 approved a plan from Griffin Health to replace a portable MRI trailer with a modular building.
The vote was unanimous.
Currently Griffin Hospital houses an MRI machine in a portable trailer on the Spring Street side of the hospital campus, near loading docks.
That trailer will be replaced with a custom-built modular building that will attach directly to the hospital.
In a letter on file in Derby City Hall, hospital officials said a new MRI unit within a modular building will better serve patients.
As it stands, people with certain medical conditions – such as cardiac patients with pacemakers – can’t use the current MRI. That would change with the new MRI.
In addition, accessing the current MRI isn’t convenient for patients, who have to use a semi-private area to change before walking into the trailer – which also has issues with cold drafts seeping in.
“The space within the newly built structure will create a far better patient experience,” according to the letter.“The fixed, permanent space will be a 1,500-square-foot suite that includes a private changing area adjacent to the MRI unit.”
At a previous commission meeting on April 15, Griffin Hospital President and CEO Patrick Charmel said officials have wanted to replace the trailer for decades.
The trailer is narrow, so it’s a tight fit for staff and patients, Charmel said.
Currently, about eight to 10 people a day use the MRI trailer, or about 2,000 patients annually, hospital officials told the commission. Those averages are not expected to increase with the new MRI building, but the service will be better, Charmel said.
During the site plan review and public hearings on the hospital’s plans, Derby Planning and Zoning Commissioner David Kopjanski – a former building inspector in Derby – questioned how Griffin would replace about five parking spaces being lost; parking spaces that were not shown on the site plan. There were also technical disagreements over how to calculate the required parking spaces for hospitals.
Hospital officials said the spots were not for the public, but were being used at times by engineering staff who will be asked to park elsewhere.