By Healthcare Facilities Today

Until recently, vibration sensitive equipment like MRIs were typically located on grade-supported slabs, often in the hospital’s basement. This type of equipment is now being used on higher floors so it can be closer to patients, according to an article on the Healthcare Construction + Operations magazine website.

Above-grade floors are more flexible and prone to vibrations, which can interfere with the equipment’s efficiency.

Because the exact equipment items to be placed in a facility are often not known early in the facility’s design process, reconstruction testing with representative equipment is the best way to quantify the expected impact of the vibrations of construction activities, according to the article

Remote monitoring — where measurement systems are installed in critical areas and their data are observed at other locations — has been found to be useful for coping with construction as well as for evaluating the suitability of sites for sensitive activities.

Read the article.