Hospital’s rocky radiology transition leaves patients ‘almost rioting in the ER’

A Virginia hospital’s transition away from a longtime radiology partner has gone so poorly that it reportedly left patients “almost rioting in the ER.” 

Mary Washington Healthcare has been mired in a behind-the-scenes dispute with Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg dating back at least two years. The disagreement came to a head in June, when RAF sued the hospital system, seeking nearly $3 million and claiming it had tried to poach away its radiologists. 

A new report from the Fredericksburg Free Times sheds further light on the struggles during Mary Washington’s transition away from RAF. June 30, 2025, was reportedly the last day that docs employed by the radiology group provided services at its two hospitals, including emergency rooms. 

On the following day, things immediately started to boil over, with lengthy turnaround times for radiologic care. 

“I left work and when I came back the next day, I was in the ER hearing people yelling at physicians that they had been there waiting 12 hours for radiology results,” an unnamed former employee of Mary Washington, who has knowledge of the radiology department, told the newspaper. “I was told that patients left to go to other ERs, that they walked out to seek care elsewhere.”

“People were almost rioting in the ER because they were not getting their results,” said a radiologic technologist with 30 years of experience, who worked for MWHC during that time and recently retired.

Mary Washington on Thursday announced it was switching radiology services over to Medical Center Radiologists, a Norfolk, Virginia-based private practice with 90-plus providers on staff. The hospital said the move was meant to “strengthen and unify” imaging services across the region, ensuring patients have continued access to care. 

The Free Press reports that the delays have somewhat dissipated in recent months after initial challenges. However, radiology services are still suffering without RAF, several sources told the newspaper. They include local physicians in private practice, former members of the hospital system’s medical staff and former employees of the interventional radiology department who have departed in the past year. 

Mary Washington—which reportedly had tried to force RAF into employment with the hospital and has waged a campaign of retaliation since—shared a statement in response to these complaints. 

“Our patients and community should be reassured that we remain committed to providing high-quality radiology services now and for the long term,” the system said in a statement to the Free Press. “Our hospital-based imaging programs have received full accreditation from the American College of Radiology, demonstrating our dedication to maintaining the utmost standards of quality and patient safety.”

Former staffers said they had warned Mary Washington not to ditch the radiology group it had been using for 50 years. However, they were reportedly “met with blank stares” from management, who moved forward with the changes anyway. The hospital declined to be interviewed for the story. 

Mary Washington reportedly has used a mix of traveling physicians/locum tenens to fill in the gaps after ending its agreement with RAF. Subsequent delays allegedly led to incorrect readings and missed diagnoses, including a femur fracture and stroke, sources told the news outlet. 

“They were trying to hurry up and get this log of images read, so they were feeling the pressure and stuff got missed,” Shanna Pace, a registered nurse who worked in Mary Washington Hospital’s IR department for two years, told the newspaper.

Sources said the problem became so bad that doctors began referring patients out of Mary Washington to other institutions for their radiology needs. You can read more from the Free Press here: