A regional state report issued Wednesday recommends that two companies be allowed to expand outpatient services for CT and MRI scans in Roanoke.

The recommendation to approve the two facilities comes after both Lewis-Gale Medical Center and the Center for Advanced Imaging requested permission in February by filing letters with the Health Planning Agency of Southwest Virginia to expand outpatient imaging services.

Regional staff approval is the first of several hurdles the two proposals must pass in order for the companies to open the facilities.

Lewis-Gale Medical Center is seeking to open Roanoke Imaging by May at 4330 Brambleton Ave. in an approximately 7,000-square-foot building at a cost of about $1.4 million. The new facility would house one CT and one MRI machine, both of which Lewis-Gale already has state permission to operate.

The Center for Advanced Imaging, located at 2923 Franklin Road S.W., is seeking to add a third MRI machine at a cost of $1.45 million. The project requires a 4,000-square-foot addition to house the new machine.

Both requests received strong community support with hundreds of letters being filed backing each request.

Any requests to change health care services must receive approval from the state for a certificate of public need.

The staff analysis suggests that patients will benefit from both projects. Specifically, the staff noted that both projects would improve wait times and accessibility to imaging services in the area.

In 2005, Lewis-Gale had garnered permission to open an outpatient imaging center on the hospital's Salem campus. But that center was never built.

The location instead is a parking lot.

Given that the center was never built on hospital grounds, the state said the request was basically seeking approval to relocate the previously slated outpatient center.

The Roanoke-based Center for Advanced Imaging opened in 2003 as the first non-hospital-based imaging center in the area. The center plans to use the third MRI machine in starting a new breast health program.

Kevin Meyer, executive director of the Health Planning Agency of Southwest Virginia, said that as new uses for CT and MRI technology are discovered, the services are being used more frequently.

Next, the requests go before the agency's board on Wednesday.

Another state report, which will examine projects for the entire state, is due out July 19. If both the board and the second report recommend approval, then the projects just need the signature of the state health commissioner.