MRI Patient Transport

MRI Patient Transport equipment exists because the wheelchair or gurney that brought a patient to the department cannot go the last few feet into the magnet room. Standard hospital wheelchairs and stretchers are largely steel, and steel is ferromagnetic. Brought into Zone IV, they are among the most common causes of MRI projectile incidents. MRI Med carries non-ferrous stretchers, wheelchairs, walkers, and patient transfer aids, along with the accessories that keep them useful over years of service.

This category is for MRI technologists, transport and nursing staff, radiology managers, and facilities teams responsible for how patients move between the waiting area, Zone III, and the scanner table. MRI Med is owned and operated by people with more than 80 years of combined MRI experience, and safety is one of the three pillars of its mission, alongside patient comfort and operational efficiency.

The static magnetic field is always on. It does not switch off between patients, at night, or when the console is idle, and its pull on a ferromagnetic object increases sharply as that object approaches the bore. A steel wheelchair or stretcher that crosses the Zone IV threshold can accelerate toward the magnet with force that has injured patients and staff and taken scanners out of service for days. Transport equipment is involved in these events more than almost any other object class because it is large, heavy, and routinely rolled by people who may not work in MRI every day.

The solution is to keep ferromagnetic transport out of the room entirely. Non-ferrous equipment built from aluminum, non-magnetic stainless, and plastics allows a patient to be wheeled directly to the table without a hand-off in the hallway. Clear labeling, a dedicated storage location, and staff training close the loop so that the right chair or stretcher is the only one that ever enters Zone IV.

Start with the ASTM F2503 labeling. MR Safe items are non-conducting, non-metallic, and non-magnetic, which is rare for a wheeled device that must carry an adult. Most MRI Stretchers and Wheelchairs are MR Conditional, meaning they are safe under specific conditions such as a maximum static field strength and spatial gradient. Read those conditions and confirm they match your scanner, including any plans to upgrade to a higher field system.

Next, match capacity and fit to your patients and your room. Consider the weight rating, the width of the door and the path to the table, and whether the stretcher's height range reaches your table height for lateral transfer. For bariatric patients or a pediatric practice, dimensions matter as much as materials.

Then think about workflow and control. Decide where the MRI Wheelchair and Stretcher will live, how they will be marked, and who is allowed to bring them past the Zone III door. Ferromagnetic Detection and Test Magnets from MRI Med's MRI Safety category help confirm that nothing has been swapped or added, and a written procedure for transport equipment is a reasonable expectation under ACR guidance and Joint Commission review.

Finally, budget for cleaning and upkeep. Transport surfaces contact every patient, so choose materials that tolerate your disinfectants.

MRI Med designs, manufactures, and distributes products for the MRI market from California, and its team has decades of hands-on experience in MRI product development. That matters for Transport Equipment, where products can look-alike a product from a general medical supplier although it is an MR Unsafe device. The category is organized around how patients actually move through a suite, and it connects naturally to MRI Med's MRI Suite Furniture, MRI Safety, and MRI Patient Comfort ranges for the rest of the room.

If you need help specifying a stretcher, wheelchair, or transfer setup for your scanner, contact the MRI Med team by phone or email.