FAQs About MRI Coil Repair

So your coil goes out during an imaging session with a patient. Now what? For many of our clients they have never experienced a coil failure and now are tasked with getting it repaired and back in service. Where do you start? Who do you decide to work with? How long is this going to take? How much is this going to cost? How long is the warranty?

Our goal in this blog post is to educate you on what to ask and what to look for when you need to get your MRI coil repaired. Whether you utilize our coil repair service or someone else’s – we want you to be informed on how to make the absolute best decision for your repair needs.

So let’s start out simple, how long will it take to get my coil fixed?

Any quality vendor will offer you a few options on that front – same day service, next day service, two day options, etc. If you can’t do without your coil for more than a day, you should ask about their loaner coil program. Do they have the same model coil available for loan? What does it cost? How fast can they get it there? Is the loaner fee a daily fee? Weekly fee? Or is it for the length of the repair?

At ScanMed we offer same day, next day, and two-day repair options along with our standard repair of 4-5 working days. We also offer a comprehensive line of loaner coils that are available for the entire length of the repair process. In fact, when we send your repair coil back to you, we want you to keep the loaner an extra day or two just to make sure you are satisfied with our coil repair work.

Does the company have any sort of repair certifications?

Are they ISO certified? What type of test fixturing do they have in place? Do they do system testing on the coil before they ship it back out to you? How are the technicians certified for repair? What type of training do they undergo? What is their background expertise? How is repair quality measured by the organization? Do you service my particular coil?

All these questions and more are things you should be thinking about before you decide on what vendor is going to repair your MRI Coil. At ScanMed we are ISO-certified, we also have undergone and passed FDA audits of our facility because we not only repair MRI coils we manufacture them. Our test fixturing was designed by an MRI PhD Engineer who has been repairing MRI coils for just over twenty years. We have access to eight MRI Systems from GE/Philips/Siemens/Hitachi just in our local area – with two systems onsite at our facility in Omaha, Nebraska. ScanMed measures our repair quality on a daily basis and reviews each technician’s repair quality with them on a monthly basis. Our training is focused on reducing defects by OEM and by coil type and with over 800 different coils supported by our repair technicians – quality for us will always be a never ending process.

Ok, well what is this going to cost me?

Do you charge me hourly plus parts? Is it fixed fee? How do you come up with your pricing? How long is the warranty?

Probably for most of you, these are the most important questions – at ScanMed we price on a fixed fee basis, what that means is you know what the repair is going to cost before you send the coil in for us to assess and repair. If we find that the coil is only in need of a mechanical repair and passes all electrical testing and /or system testing then we will charge a reduced fee for the repair and notify you of our findings. Our pricing is based on the thousands of coils we have received in for repairs over the years and that has provided us with a deep understanding of what it will take to repair your coil. Our standard warranties at ScanMed are 90-120 days in duration, and we also offer extended warranties for up to one year. ScanMed will also meet or beat any accredited competitor's pricing!

Hopefully with this information you are better armed to take on the task of getting your MRI coil repaired. When you know what to ask, the decision process gets one heck of a lot easier.

If you have any other questions, contact our customer service representatives and they'll get back to you right away!