PHOENIX — Nearly all SimonMed Imaging Centers are now licensed with the Arizona Department of Health Services and patients can expect more accountability if something goes wrong.
“It gives us oversight. We will inspect the premises on a regular basis. And if there is a complaint about care provided in those facilities that's under licensing authority, we can investigate,” said Tom Salow, assistant director of licensing at ADHS, earlier this year.
The major changes come in direct response to ABC15’s series of investigations, which exposed critical mistakes and a lack of oversight by state regulators at SimonMed, one of the Valley’s largest medical imaging providers.
Records showed SimonMed had been operating unlicensed and unregulated for nearly six years by the health department because of a licensing exemption the state determined the company met. Without licensing, state health regulators said they didn’t have the authority to investigate complaints or take enforcement action.
“If you're exempt from licensing, we don't have oversight. We can't. It's not an optional oversight. It's. We can't,” Salow said.
ADHS said a total of 56 SimonMed locations in Arizona are currently licensed as outpatient treatment centers, and eight more SimonMed licensing applications are under review and awaiting initial inspection.
Previously, the health department said all SimonMed’s locations would be licensed by mid-March. The agency hasn’t explained why it’s taken two more months than originally expected to license those additional imaging centers.
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Other incidents at SimonMed locations
An ABC15 Investigation in October exposed how an Arizona inmate and prison guard were stuck to an MRI machine in May of 2022 at the SimonMed in Avondale.
Then, an Arizona woman filed a lawsuit after records showed she was accidentally injected with the sedative Valium at the Thompson Peak SimonMed Imaging Center in Scottsdale. The patient says it led to a life-threatening overdose during an MRI scan in 2021.
Both incidents raised serious questions about patient safety but were never investigated by the health department because without a license the agency said it didn’t have the authority. ADHS will have the authority to investigate complaints moving forward since nearly all SimonMed’s locations are now licensed with the agency.
SimonMed declined ABC15’s request for an on-camera interview.
The company sent a statement almost identical to what it said before, which didn’t directly address ABC15’s reporting, but stated in part, We would like to express that every physician, technologist and piece of imaging equipment in a SimonMed facility is licensed and regulated by several regulatory bodies. Our facilities and practitioners are subject to numerous licensing and accreditation requirements, with which we comply.
But up until recently, SimonMed Imaging Centers were not licensed with the Arizona health department and therefore not subject to regular inspections by local state health officials.
As we have previously stated, we have always had a constructive and cooperative relationship with our regulators and continue to heed their guidance. This successful licensing of our facilities in Arizona is a further reflection of that fact and supplements the licensing and regulatory oversight already in place, SimonMed wrote in the statement.
Contact ABC15 Investigator Jennifer Kovaleski at Jennifer.Kovaleski@abc15.com
