Imaging wait times rise after hospital system purchases private radiology practice
Radiology wait times are rising following one hospital system’s purchase of a private imaging practice in Las Vegas.
Intermountain Health in January finalized its acquisition of Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging, a 40-year-old radiology group with a dozen locations around the Sin City. But in the months since, patients say they have faced longer-than-expected turnaround times for their results, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Thursday.
The newspaper spoke with eight patients, who described varying degrees of delays in waiting for their test results. Richard Smith, 75, who has been battling bladder cancer since 2021, said he had to wait 23 days for his latest imaging findings, which would previously always come back within a week.
“We had to cancel two doctor’s appointments, thinking [we would get the results] in the following week,” his wife, Susan Smith, told the Review-Journal.
Intermountain, which is based in Salt Lake City, blamed the delays on staffing. The hospital system is reportedly “experiencing a backlog in some imaging results” due to the national radiologist shortage. Southern Nevada is “more severely impacted than the rest of the country,” Intermountain said in a statement shared with the news outlet.
Nevada reportedly has the lowest number of radiologists per capita at 9 per 100,000 individuals, according to Medicus Healthcare Solutions. Intermountain said it’s now working to address the backlog with plans to hire another 20 radiologists soon. It’s also working to expedite licensure, credentialing, and privileging processes.
Intermountain first announced plans to acquire Steinberg, which had 30 rads prior to the merger, back in October 2025. At the time, the hospital said it was experiencing rapid growth in southern Nevada with the belief that acquiring the radiology group and its 12 locations would help to “enhance patient access to high-quality, cost-effective care” while improving coordination.
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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.