After a long legal struggle with Mississippi regulators, Kevin Blackwell and radiologist Jason Morris have an MRI two days a week in Southaven that in less than a month in operation is already running at capacity. But while they develop plans for expanded services, competitors on both sides are trying to take it all away.

Blackwell and Morris own Desoto Imaging Specialists in Southaven, the major tenant at DeSoto Medical Plaza, which Blackwell also owns. Other tenants include a urology group and a pharmaceutical shipper.

One block to the east is Carvel Imaging Center with one fixed MRI unit, while two blocks to the west is Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto, with three fixed magnets and space for two more.

When Blackwell first filed for a state-issued Certificate of Need, required for any capital investment over $1.5 million, both Carvel and Baptist challenged it as not needed in the market. Blackwell won and now has his mobile unit, operated by Los Angeles-based Alliance Imaging, Inc., two days a week.

Carvel and Baptist have appealed the ruling, and a final decision from the Mississippi Supreme Court may be a year away.

While Alliance delivers and operates the machine, Blackwell's business is to persuade local physicians to send him business; he points to the volume of patients as evidence that he's satisfying demand.

"I've already spent $100,000 on attorney fees, and I'm sure that Carvel and Baptist have each spent that much," Blackwell says. "We've demonstrated the need; the magnets at the hospital and Carvel were at the level that indicated the need for another machine."

Jackson, Miss., attorney Katie Gilchrist, who represents Carvel, contends that Blackwell's application was deficient from the start in proving the unit could meet the minimum 1,700 procedures per year. It's unusual, she says, that Blackwell is being allowed to operate an MRI during the appeals process.

Since appealing that Blackwell's unit was unnecessary, Baptist has installed an additional MRI; Carvel went from a two-day-a-week mobile unit to a permanent, full-time unit.