Controversial Port Charlotte imaging company gets new owners

Published: Updated:
WINK News

A patient left in the dark fought for her right to see her test results after a Port Charlotte imaging company failed to provide them.

She finally got them back after a month-long wait. Her case was one of 4,000 backlogged tests at Advanced Imaging.

“They did not explain it other than it was going to be delayed,” said patient Pat Bouland.

Bouland is one of many who waited weeks to receive their results from the company.

After weeks with no answers, she contacted the Agency for Health Care Administration. The department conducted an inspection on March 28, and Bouland received the following statement soon after.

“Representatives found that rules and laws were violated at the time of our visit. The facility received a statement of deficiencies.”

The inspection also pointed out issues with record keeping and incident reports. And now the company has new owners who say they’re trying to turn things around.

“The condition that we picked it up in was landlords had not been paid, radiologists had not been paid, payroll was being paid on a delayed fashion,” said Chief Operating Officer Rohit Navani.  “It was a bit of a mess.”

Navani and his Canadian-based company “Akumin” took over on May 11. They’ve already managed to get caught up on thousands of tests.

About 80 percent of the people who wanted to work at the company are still employed. However, they couldn’t save every job.

“To turn around a business that’s failing the way this one is, there’s got to be some opportunity to save some costs,” Rohit said.

For patients like Bouland, she hopes they earn back some trust from the community.

“Are they going to pick up the ball? Are they going to show some professionalism?” she said.

WINK News reached out to Advanced Imaging’s previous owner, but did not yet hear back.

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