Former Sheer Ahearn physicians open new radiology practice

TAMPA - Two years after leaving Sheer Ahearn and Associates, Dr. Eric Cotton and two physician partners are returning to radiology practice in Hillsborough County.

BayView Radiology - made up of Cotton, Dr. Alan Cousin and Dr. Kirby Blankenship - is opening a diagnostic imaging center at Cypress Point Office Park, 10010 North Dale Mabry Highway. The center was scheduled to open July 7.

The three doctors have invested $4.5 million in the project, Cotton said.

The radiologists formerly were with Sheer Ahearn, which had 43 physicians and was one of the largest radiology practices in the Tampa area when it was bought for $49 million by MedPartners Inc. in 1996.

MedPartners, at one time the nation's largest owner and manager of physician practices, took big losses in the late 1990s because its physician practices were not performing as well as expected. Those practices were later divested and the company changed its named to Caremark...