MOSES LAKE — Gregg Fletcher made sure to take a selfie with the new arrival – after all, it’s not every day the director of Moses Lake Clinic gets to take a picture with a million-dollar MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine being lowered through the roof.

Actually, the machine by itself was $1.2 million, Fletcher said. “That was actually a bargain price,” said clinic radiologist Dr. Gregory Bear. Total cost, when all the expenses were added up, was $1.6 million. Original estimates were more than $2 million, Bear said.

The new MRI is the “top of the line in the whole Confluence system,” Fletcher said. It replaces an MRI setup that was about a decade old, he said. And it means patients will be less likely to have to leave town to receive MRI services. “There’s not a more advanced magnet in Tri-Cities or Spokane,” said radiology manager Ray Ownby.

“It’s kind of like getting a new car,” Bear said. “Every 10 years is a whole new generation of car.” The space for the patient is wider, and “image quality and detail will be improved,” he said. Image quality will be better for patients with replacement joints,

The new machine will be able to see more detail, and will be more sensitive to abnormalities, Bear said. “Subtle things that might’ve been missed in the past, we’ll have a better chance of seeing them.”

And there’s another advantage. “This scanner is super-quiet,” Bear said. The machine it’s replacing was “pretty much like being in an artillery range.” It’s also easier for radiology technicians to use, Fletcher said.

The MRI unit was delivered Monday morning, and the trick once it got to the clinic parking lot was getting it into the building. Maintenance and operation requirements mean the MRI unit is housed in its own building, and it's in a separate room inside the building. Getting it in either required some wide doors or a hole in the roof, and the designers of the building opted for the latter.

Off came the roof, or at least a section of the roof, and up went the unit – the $1.2 million MRI unit, dangling from straps. Fletcher admitted to a little nervousness as the unit was lifted over the building and lowered into place.

Patients should be able to start using the machine about Feb. 22, Fletcher said.