Three private radiology practices spread out across the U.S. are merging into a multistate corporation to provide quality radiology care to their parent organization, Trinity Health.

X-Ray Consultants (XRC) in Indiana; Naugatuck Valley Radiological Associates (NVRA) in Connecticut; and Huron Valley Radiology (HCR) in Michigan will come together to create Advanced Imaging Alliance (AIA).

The alliance will cater to nine health systems, rural hospitals, clinics and imaging centers in all three states that are affiliated with Trinity Health as well as other hospitals and providers. While the three will continue to operate separately, their alliance provides the corporation with 76 radiologists who have an annual combined reading total of 1,395,000 studies.

"Within AIA, we will leverage that trust on behalf of our patients and Trinity Health to improve quality and reporting through enhanced data analytics, shared metrics and IT networking,” said Dr. Edward Yang, president of XRC, in a statement.

As AIA, the three organizations are seeking to create a constantly improving single level of quality radiological service, with enhanced subspecialization, data analytics and IT networking. Both XRC and NVRA each bring on board 11 radiologists, while HVR brings 54.

All three are part of the Patient Safety Organization operated by Strategic Radiology, a national coalition of privately owned, independent radiology groups. Together, for several years, they have conducted data analytics and benchmarking based on coalition quality metrics to improve the quality of the services they provide.

“The consolidation trend in the hospital market is creating a national healthcare infrastructure that is not always aligned with local marketplaces,” said Dr. Geoffrey Manton, president of NVRA, in a statement. “AIA is proof that individual independent private practice groups based in communities across America can work together to meet the needs of multistate health systems.”

Formed through a merger between Holy Cross Health System in Indiana and Mercy Health Services in Michigan, Trinity Health later added St. Mary’s Hospital in Connecticut and now serves nearly 90 hospitals across the U.S. Based in Livonia, Michigan, Trinity is one of the largest Catholic healthcare systems in the U.S. and has an annual operating revenue of more than $20 billion.

Last March, the healthcare system acquired a majority stake in Premier Health, an urgent care operator that partners with local providers to increase access to care.

The deal put Premier in charge of 20 of Trinity’s existing urgent care locations. The organization runs more than 70 across seven states and plans to double this number across several states over the next few years, and integrate them with follow-up and primary care services.

It also was in talks to acquire Chestnut Hill Hospital and its urgent care centers in Philadelphia from Tower Health but called off the deal just last month.

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