Decades-old radiology practice selling off assets to local hospital and closing office
A decades-old radiology practice is selling off assets to a local hospital and closing its office on March 5, the two announced on Friday.
Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, New York, is purchasing the properties of long-time radiology partner Northern Radiology Imaging including equipment, effective March 15. NMI—which has served the state’s North Country region for more than 70 years—will close its offices at the end of the day on March 5.
The two groups said they had been working on the deal dating as far back as 2017, but COVID-19 put things on hold. After the rad practice’s office shutters, Samaritan plans to move its imaging services to a new health and wellness plaza inside of a renovated former Kmart superstore nearby. NMI rads will continue working with the 290-bed nonprofit community hospital after the change.
“We are pleased to bring this transaction to closure as it strategically aligns the Northern Radiology physicians and SMC for the future growth of our diagnostic imaging services, while at the same time strengthening a long-standing partnership,” hospital President and CEO Thomas Carman said Feb. 26.
Members of NRI’s other practice, Northern Radiology Associates, will provide imaging interpretations while remaining in private practice and not directly employed by the hospital. Samaritan may hire some NRI staffers as it works to evaluate staffing needs, according to the announcement. SMC all together handles about 100,000 radiology and imaging procedures annually. NRI Director of Outpatient Imaging Dean Phillips, DO, said he is “pleased” to finally unify outpatient imaging services with Samaritan.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.