WAILUKU - A judge issued a temporary restraining order Monday, blocking RadCare, a Dallas-based company, from taking over an exclusive radiology services contract at Maui Memorial Medical Center on Thursday.
Judge Kelsey Kawano granted the request filed by Maui Radiology Associates and set a hearing for a preliminary injunction for 10 a.m. July 11 in 2nd Circuit Court.
Defendants on the affidavit include the Hawaii Health Systems Corp., the board of directors of the Maui Regional Health Care System of the Hawai'i Health System Corp. and Wesley Lo, chief executive officer of Maui Memorial Medical Center.
Maui Radiology Associates has held the hospital's exclusive radiology services contract since 2004. On May 29, the Maui Regional Board of Hawai'i Health Systems Corp. voted to over-rule the hospital's Medical Executive Committee recommendation in favor of Maui Radiology to award a two-year contract to RadCare.
Hospital officials have said RadCare was the top finisher among four bidders in a request for proposal process for the radiology services contract.
The temporary restraining order means that RadCare will not take over radiology services at Maui Memorial as of Thursday as had been planned.
The contract award dispute also has been taken to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' Office of Administrative Hearings. Oral arguments in the case had been set for today, but last week that hearing was canceled. The parties will submit written legal briefs instead.
Attorneys representing Maui Radiology Associates argue that RadCare should not have been awarded the contract because it did not have board-certified, state-licensed radiologists hired at the time it submitted its proposal for the contract. RadCare has responded, saying that it met all the requirements of the hospital's request for proposals and was recruiting physicians to work at Maui Memorial.
RadCare pledged to be fully staffed and ready to provide radiology services at the hospital when the new contract was to have taken effect Thursday.
RadCare is a division of EmCare, a national health services company based in Texas.
