Albuquerque, NM-based Zia Diagnostic Imaging has sued Lovelace Health System, alleging that the hospital chain hired away its interventional radiologists in violation of an exclusive contract and failed to address disruptions from a 2023 cyberattack, according to a report from the Albuquerque Journal.
Zia held an exclusive five-year contract, which took effect in 2020, to provide radiology services at Lovelace’s five Albuquerque hospitals. Lovelace offered jobs to three of Zia’s interventional radiologists in 2022, and after they left in October 2023, they began providing diagnostic radiology services as Lovelace employees, according to the lawsuit, filed in October in Bernalillo County district court. Several other Zia radiologists later resigned, and the group terminated its agreement with Lovelace in spring 2024 and no longer provides radiology services, the paper reported.
The lawsuit also alleges that months of computer system outages following a November 2023 cyberattack on Lovelace parent company Ardent Health breached contract terms requiring adequate equipment and services. Zia radiologists had to handwrite reports and fax, call, or deliver them, and some imaging studies were not provided to radiologists for months, the complaint states.
Zia plans to seek about $5 million to $7 million in damages, a lawyer for the group told the newspaper. Lovelace declined to comment on the pending litigation.
