When the Sumter Medical Center in Georgia was destroyed in a 2007 tornado, it had to rebuild itself from scratch. Partnering with Phoebe Health System, the center is now called Phoebe Sumter Medical Center.

Months after the tornado, the center entered Siemens Healthcare's "Win an MRI" contest, in which rural and community hospitals without an MRI scanner submit videos explaining why their facility should receive a Siemens MRI scanner.

While Phoebe Sumter Medical Center did not win the MRI, the center does not yet have a permanent facility. Siemens felt "compelled" to also donate the 1.5 (T) MAGNETOM ESSENZA MR system, worth $800,000, to the facility, which lost its scanner in the tornado, explains Marcus Johnson, the center's director of marketing and public relations.
"We definitely want to thank Siemens for their generosity," says Johnson. "The state-of-the-art machine helps us improve the way we can do our health care."

The medical center worked with Siemens to make the scanner available before the new 74-bed hospital is completed, expected to be up and running at the end of 2011 or early 2012, Johnson says. As of June 2, the center started seeing patients for MRI scans at its interim facility.

"Siemens is proud to donate a new MRI scanner to Phoebe Sumter and be a part of the rebuilding of this worthy institution," Don Fowler, vice president of magnetic resonance for Siemens Healthcare, said in prepared remarks. "Phoebe Sumter can now provide much-needed MRI exams to its patients in-house and help ensure that its patients receive optimal medical imaging services and quality patient care."

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