Christine Mattingly, Director of Allen Imaging Center at United Medical Park in Waterloo, Iowa, was in charge of an addition to the existing facility. She told us that, "As a former claustrophobic MRI technologist myself, it took a lot of time and planning to create the best environment that we could for our MRI unit.

"We were the only open MRI in the area, and wanted to continue with that, opting for a Siemens open bore magnet. But, we also wanted to create a homier environment in the room, and designed a larger room to help alleviate some of the claustrophobia.

"I'm very aware of the trend to provide images of nature. I think that nature scenes are soothing and calming. With the Sky Factory MRI Luminous SkyCeiling™ you feel like you're lying on your back out in a grassy field looking at the sky, rather than actually having the exam done, and that's very important to the patients.

"I actually laid on the table myself when we first got it installed and the SkyCeiling looks very, very natural. In fact, if you lie there and imagine long enough you can sense the clouds actually moving. It's very pleasing to the eye.

"We looked at several vendors. We got a lot of help from The Sky Factory. Other vendors turned us down, or wouldn't even give us quotes because they said their products wouldn't show properly in our room with all of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The SkyCeiling provides plenty of illumination so that patients can appreciate the illusion, even with all of the windows around.

"We went with a big 8' x 8' design to make the room seem as spacious and open as we could. The SkyCeiling, along with the large windows, has really accomplished that. The Sky Factory was very willing to work with our design and to do whatever we needed to get it done. They had one of the largest selections of the sky scenes that we were looking for. The Sky Factory gave us a lot of choices and they worked very well with us.

"The SkyCeiling is very appealing to patients, they really enjoy it. It helps us to promote the openness and the homey feeling that we're trying to create here. A lot of times healthcare can be a pretty scary situation and it helps to be able to alleviate some of those fears and put people at rest. They really enjoy the fact that they don't feel closed in. With MRIs, a lot of the patients do feel closed in. With their head out and being able to look at the SkyCeiling, it really helps to alleviate some of their fears and calm them.

"We were on a very short timeline and I know we really pressed the company to get it in here. Everyone who I worked with at The Sky Factory was very cordial and pleasant and did whatever they could do to accommodate us. We're very happy with the Sky Factory MRI Luminous SkyCeiling. It turned out exactly as I imagined from the pictures, and everything went very smoothly with installation; it's a very good product."



This Installation Features:
The Luminous Rectilinear SkyCeiling^TM