LEBANON — A planned new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) center at the Lebanon hospital got its most important piece of machinery Tuesday when the MRI magnet was hoisted into place.

A crane from Pacific Rigging in Vancouver, Wash., was used to lift the 7-ton magnet into the building during a process that began around 9 a.m. and took three hours to complete. The magnet was lifted through a hole left in the side of the building to accommodate the move.

MRIs use a high-powered magnetic field and radio waves to obtain high-quality images of a patient’s internal organs and systems.

The installation in Lebanon is costing $1.4 million, according to Lebanon hospital spokesman Ian Rollins.

He said the patient’s cost of getting an MRI ranges from $800 to as much as $3,000.

The Lebanon unit is housed in a separate building on the hospital campus.

Inside, the place features unusual ceiling lighting above the unit. Light-emitting diode (LED) lights highlight a series of panels that recreate a scene including blue sky. The lighting has become standard with most MRI installations and is designed to have a calming effect on patients as they enter the MRI.

Panels are interchangeable and can feature other seasonal scenes.

Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital and Corvallis Radiology will jointly operate the new 3,425-square-foot center on the hospital campus. It is scheduled to open in late October.

Until the opening, the Lebanon hospital will continue to share a mobile MRI unit with Samaritan hospitals in Newport and Lincoln City. The mobile unit is at the Lebanon hospital four days a week.

Lebanon’s is the first of five new MRI units that Samaritan will bring online over the next year. Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis and the Samaritan hospitals in Albany, Newport and Lincoln City will have theirs available in early 2009.