GULF SHORES, Ala. – Precision imaging recently had a groundbreaking to mark the expansion of its business on Second Avenue West.

“It’s an expansion of our existing building and we’re going to have a new MRI in here,” Jessica Williams of Precision Imaging said. “It’s going to be a three-tesla MRI. It’ll be three times stronger than any other MRI around and then it’s open. A lot of patients are claustrophobic.”

Open MRIs some times have resolution problems, but the new technology solves that problem.

“This has both the high resolution and the open,” Jessica Williams said. “We’re going to have a stem cell lab here as well as a huge nurses’ station for a recovery bay.

Dr. Jonathon Williams, co-owner of the facility and Jessica’s husband, says the new 7,000 square foot addition will allow the company to provide better services.

“The three-tesla MRI which will be the most powerful MRI in south Alabama,” he said. “It has a big opening and has a lot of nice, new features so we’re really looking forward to that.

“We also have a big recovery bay for patients so we can do more procedures and get patients through quicker. We’ve got a new digital X-ray system and several other new areas and new offices. I think it will help the overall practice and our patient flow and patient care.”

The Williamses first opened Precision Imaging in 2009 and brought one of the few advanced heart imaging machines to Alabama, in addition to other services.

“We do CT scans, a 64-slice CT scans, a heart scan,” she said. “We do MRIs, the ultrasounds, diagnostics, pain management and we do some cancer procedures as well. “

The company also recently began donating some imaging services to patients at the Alabama Free Clinic which sees patients every other Monday evening in Gulf Shores.

Ed Rodriguez, President and CEO of the Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce, said the expansion is another sign of the robust coastal economy.

“Regardless of what’s happening elsewhere in the country and in the world, the economy here in the coastal Baldwin area is on fire,” Rodriguez said. “And that’s a good time because every time we have a ribbon cutting or groundbreaking what we are really celebrating is a lot of economic activity and a lot of jobs created and more opportunities. And the more of this we have, the better it is for everybody.”