A Wake County woman sues Raleigh Radiology over problems with mammograms

A Wake County woman is suing a radiology practice that had to stop offering mammograms at one of its offices because of problems with its images.

Raleigh Radiology’s Blue Ridge Road office lost its accreditation because mammography images from Nov. 7, 2017, to Nov. 6, 2019, did not meet federal standards. The accreditation decision was based on a sample of images, according to a statement published last month on the company’s website, and there was no indication that cancer was overlooked.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of Emily Cram, a Wake County resident, in Wake Superior Court said Cram had three mammograms at Blue Ridge over those two years, and was not told whether her images were in the sample reviewed by the accrediting organization. Cram was not offered a refund, the lawsuit said.

The suit seeks to become a class action, to include others who had mammograms at the Blue Ridge Road office over the two years when the problem images were produced.

The lawsuit is seeking refunds for breast cancer screenings done during that time, and payment of costs for re-reviews or repeat mammograms.

The Raleigh Radiology spokeswoman did not respond to a telephone call or email Monday afternoon about the lawsuit or the accreditation status at the Blue Ridge Road office.

Blue Ridge Road mammography patients received a letter from Raleigh Radiology last month that said the FDA stopped mammography at the Blue Ridge Road office, the lawsuit said. The letter advised patients “to consult with their referring physician at their own expense” and said it may be necessary to re-review or repeat mammograms taken between Nov. 7, 2017, and Nov. 6, 2019, the lawsuit said.

An FDA-mandated letter followed about a week later that said patients who had received a mammogram at a federally certified facility after getting a mammogram at Blue Ridge should ignore the Blue Ridge results and “follow the recommendation from that subsequent mammogram,” the lawsuit said. Patients who hadn’t gotten a mammogram from a different facility after going to Blue Ridge were advised to talk to their doctors “as soon as possible,” the lawsuit said. That letter said that mammograms would need to be re-reviewed and, in many cases, would need to be done again at a certified facility, according to the lawsuit.

This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "A Wake County woman sues Raleigh Radiology over problems with mammograms."