MR Unit Not the Cause of Philadelphia Imaging Center Explosion, Exec Says

A late-afternoon explosion at a Philadelphia imaging center Tuesday may be the result of an electrical or gas overload at one of its strip-mall neighbors, according to the company president. The Roosevelt Avenue offices of TriState Imaging Group of Philadelphia, PA were rocked by “a small, contained explosion” that did not harm anyone, nor did it involve the Hitachi AIRIS II open MR unit installed at the building, TriState Imaging president Mark Carr tells Imagingbiz. “It’s a permanent magnet, so it wasn’t a high field,” Carr said. “It’s all electric.” Carr said that although only preliminary reports were available to him this afternoon, local fire investigators informed him that the electrical panels in the facility “are fine.” “The way the building is laid out, it’s a very long space and the magnet’s in the middle,” Carr said. “Everything else took place in the back. We don’t even know if it had anything to do with us. “One of the neighbors called 911 to report a power surge,” he says. “It ended up blowing up our back wall, and that’s why we’re getting the blame for it.” Carr says none of his staff has been allowed back in the facility while the inspection is being conducted. He does not believe that patient throughput at the location, which averaged seven patients daily, will be affected significantly. “Our model is clustered facilities, so we actually have three other facilities within five miles that can take the patient load,” he says. “We’ll just expand our hours at those facilities.” TriState Imaging operates 28 facilities throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.