Here is a list of 56 companies involved in ASC management and development. Note: This list is not an endorsement of any company.
Ambulatory Healthcare Strategies. Ambulatory Healthcare Strategies was founded in 2009 by John J. Goehle, MBA, and Vito Quatela, MD. Most of AHS' surgery centers are located in the northeast United States. Mr. Goehle, who serves as the company's COO, has written four books about ASCs and says, "AHS focuses on providing an alternative to traditional management companies by focusing on surgery centers that don't need all the resources of a management company, but would like to receive some of the same services that they usually offer." Dr. Quatela is a board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and the immediate past president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. He has developed and owns two surgery centers in Rochester, N.Y. The company provides administrative, oversight and consulting services for surgery centers.
Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America. Led by CEO Luke Lambert, CFO Robert Westergard and founders Brent Lambert, MD and Tom Bombardier, MD, ASCOA is one of the most renowned privately-held ASC chains in the country. ASCOA currently operates 34 facilities across the country with others in development. ASCOA is a physician-owned ASC development and management company that offers years of experience in real estate, staffing, training, equipping, licensure, accreditation and compliance from a group of all-surgeon principals. The company was formed by Dr. Lambert, Dr. Bombardier and George Violin, MD and has a record of successful ASC turnarounds, correcting major problems such as poor management, inefficiencies caused by overbuilding and loose scheduling, lack of surgeon recruitment and lower-than-optimal reimbursement per case.
Ambulatory Surgical Group. ASG was founded in 2008 by long-term ASC veterans John Seitz and Stuart Bruck, who currently serve as CEO and director of financial and strategic planning, respectively. Mr. Seitz came to Ambulatory Surgical Group from Surgem According to the ASG website, Mr. Seitz believes that a higher percentage of physician ownership means better participation by physicians in ASC operation. ASG currently works in New Jersey and several cities in California.
AmSurg. AmSurg, one of the few publicly-traded ASC companies, partners with over 1,200 physicians at more than 200 ASCs across the United States and strives to help its ASCs provide high-quality, low-cost surgical services coupled with great patient satisfaction. AmSurg is led by CEO and president Christopher Holden, a highly skilled leader who joined the company in 2007 from Triad Hospitals, where he served as senior vice president and division president. AmSurg has centers in 33 states.
Ascent Partners. Ascent Partners is run by partners H. Thomas Scott and W. Scott Riegle. Prior to owning Ascent, Mr. Scott, a certified public accountant, was a co-founder and senior vice president of a physician practice and ancillary management company, while Mr. Riegle served as director of operations for HealthSouth Corporation. Ascent Partners has developed and operated 18 ASCs throughout the United States.
Artisan Medical. Founded in 2003, Artisan Medical has grown by building relationships with key ASC industry leaders and focusing on cost-saving strategies for its facilities. The company is run by managing partner Jesse Chamberlain, who specializes in organizing strategic ASC partnership teams and recruiting surgeons. Mr. Chamberlain previously worked for Johnson & Johnson, Chiron Vision, Bausch&Lomb and managed Proctor & Gamble's co-op merchandising agreements compliance program. The company operates five surgery centers in Maryland and Virginia.
ASD Management. ASD Management (formerly Woodrum/Ambulatory Systems Development) is one of the largest and oldest privately-funded ASC companies in the United States. ASD is noted throughout the ASC industry for being a truly hands-on, high-integrity company. The company is run by Robert and Joe Zasa, both of whom are nationally recognized for ASC development and management and have led the company to develop and manage over 125 surgery centers since 1986. ASD focuses on hospital/physician joint ventures and is known in the industry for hands-on, business-focused leadership. The company also specializes in turnaround strategies for existing ASCs and de novo development.
Blue Chip Surgical Center Partners. Run by the highly-regarded CEO Jeff Leland, Blue Chip focuses on spine, multi-specialty and physician/hospital joint-venture ASCs and takes care of financial, payor, legal and operational matters so that its surgeon-partners can focus on their clinical practices. Blue Chip is a true leader in spine and in minority ownership interest. The company continues to partner with surgery centers across the country, announcing a partnership with Crane Creek Surgery Center in Melbourne, Fla., in early Nov. 2010. In 2010, Blue Chip has also announced several new key staff members, including Chris Bishop, who joined the company as partner and senior vice president of acquisitions and business development in March, and Kathleen Whitlow, who joined the company as COO in January.
Cirrus Health. Cirrus Health, which is led by CEO Donald C. Wilson, specializes in the management and development ASCs, as well as of multi-specialty and single-specialty surgical hospitals. The company was founded in 1999 and adapted its business model in 2005 to encompass development and management of physician-owned ASCs and short-stay hospitals, rather than simply development. Cirrus Health works to align with local physicians and community healthcare providers to provide the best patient care in its ASCs.
The C/N Group. Founded in 1980, The C/N Group began offering consulting and management expertise to the healthcare industry. The company is owned and managed by the Chopra family — Ravi, Raman and Rajiv. During its initial decade of operation, the firm's primary focus was physician practice management and consulting, after which it expanded its services to include the development and day-to-day operation of healthcare facilities. In the last 10 years, the C/N Group has completed projects totaling more than $75 million in cost. The family-owned company employs approximately 230 people at its New York, Indiana and Texas regional markets.
Constitution Surgery Centers. CSC has provided patients with surgical care for more than a decade. Based in Newington, Conn., CSC operates more than 10 single- and multi-specialty ASCs in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Founded in 1997, the company is led by co-founder, president and CEO Kris Mineau. Mr. Mineau was also the founding president of the Connecticut Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. In 2009, the company opened the Greater Springfield (Mass.) Surgery Center, a single-specialty ASC focused on urology.
Covenant Surgical Partners. Nashville, Tenn.-based Covenant Surgical Partners is led by Michael Koban, Jr., chairman of the board of directors, Richard Jacques, president and CEO, and Marnix E. Heersink, MD, vice chairman of the board of directors and chief medical officer. Mr. Koban has more than 25 years of experience as a senior executive in hospital management, while Mr. Jacques has held positions at Surgical Health Group and AmSurg. Covenant acquires and operates single- and limited-specialty surgery centers in partnership with physicians.
Ethos Partners. Ethos Partners offers turnkey ASC development and management solutions from a group of professionals who have worked with more than 150 ASCs across the country. The company's ambulatory surgery center solutions team includes Carolyn Axley, RN, Mark Dunlap and Andrew and Tina King. Mr. Dunlap has managed and/or developed over 100 ASCs and previously served as founder and principal of management and development firm Acumen Healthcare. He also served as vice president of HCA's ambulatory surgery division. Mr. Dunlap and Ms. King also worked for Acumen Healthcare prior to joining Ethos.
Elite Surgical Affiliates. Based in Houston, Elite Surgical Affiliates manages and has an interest in ASCs with surgeons. The company was founded by respected CEO Lori Ramirez, who has more than 12 years of experience in surgical development, operations and management and has successfully partnered with more than 350 surgeons. She has also played a critical role in recruiting more than 100 new surgeons and has successfully restructured and turned around failing partnerships. Elite Surgical Affiliates' management team specializes in operations, development, sales and marketing, financial management, syndications and clinical excellence programs.
Facility Development & Management. FDM is a for-profit limited liability corporation that provides consultative, developmental and managerial services for ASCs through the country. The company was founded in 1992 and currently helps ASCs provide quality surgical services to physicians and consumers. FDM partners in de novo centers with physicians and hospitals, as well as re-syndicating existing ASCs. According to its website, the company has partnered with its clients to open and operate more than 45 profitable centers, including gastroenterology, urology, pain management and orthopedic centers, among others. The company is headed by Edward P. Hetrick, president, who has over 30 years of experience in healthcare and has held management positions in major teaching institutions in the New York metropolitan area. He has been involved in the development of over 50 ASCs.
Foundation Surgery Affiliates. FSA was founded in 1996 by Thomas A. Michaud, a pioneer in the ASC industry, who continues to oversee the company's significant growth as chairman of the board. FSA offers turnkey management and development solutions for physician partners. FSA partners with physicians through investment in a minority ownership position, usually between 10-40 percent, and currently operates 14 ASCs in five states. All of the ASCs the company operates are multi-specialty facilities.
Global Surgical Partners. GSP focuses exclusively on the development and management of physician/hospital and physician-owned joint-venture ASCs. The company acquires minority interests in its center and currently manages eight surgery centers. Under the GSP model, each centers' activities are decentralized, but administrators are employed by GSP. The company is led by J. A. Ziskind, president and CEO, who has served in that position since the company's inception, and Ken Arvin, Esq., CFO and general counsel.
Hospital Corporation of America. HCA is the largest for-profit operator of hospitals in the country and currently operates approximately 105 freestanding surgery centers as well as its 163 hospitals in the United States and England. The company was one of the first hospital companies when it was founded in Nashville in 1968. HCA is led by chairman and CEO Richard M. Bracken, who has been with the company since 1981 and has held various executive positions within the company, including CEO of Green Hospital of Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in San Diego, Calif. The company's its outpatient services group is led by A. Bruce Moore, Jr.
Health Inventures. Health Inventures, founded by Richard Hanley, was one of the original non-equity management and development companies focused on the ASC industry. It is now often an equity partner in joint ventures as well as a manager and developer. Mr. Hanley and the rest of the company's management team have launched more than 100 surgery centers, surgical hospitals, imaging centers and medical office buildings, and managed more than $1 billion in revenues during their careers. The team includes industry experts Christian Ellison, vice president of business development, Dennis Martin, senior vice president of health systems and Thomas Wherry, MD, consulting medical director. Mr. Ellison has formed numerous physician-hospital joint ventures throughout his career and has helped build Health Inventures domestically and internationally during his 12 years with the company. Health Inventures currently manages more than 25 ASCs across the country.
Healthcare Venture Professionals. HVP is an ASC management company that specializes in multi-specialty, orthopedic, pain management, endoscopy, GI and hospital-owned surgery centers. The founders and principles of HVP are John Smalley and Chuck Owen, seasoned healthcare executives with more than 60 years of combined healthcare leadership experience. The company manages ASCs across the United States, with most facilities located in Michigan, Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina.
Innovative Surgical Solutions Management. Innovative Surgical Solutions Management partners with physicians and health systems to develop and operate ASCs, making surgery operations its sole business. The company is run by D. Jeffrey Sapp, former vice president of development for USPI, and Nancy Kastner, who each have years of healthcare management experience and have successfully turned around numerous failing centers. Founded in 2001, the company’s senior leadership has developed or managed more than 100 ASCs across the country.
Interventional Management Services. IMS is a physician-owned ASC management and development company that focuses on pain management physicians. Centers managed by IMS range from one-room, single-specialty centers to large multi-specialty physician/hospital joint ventures. The company has corporate offices in Atlanta and affiliate ASCs in Georgia, Texas and New Mexico, and it continues to expand throughout the country. The company is led by CEO Stephen Rosenbaum, who created the company with Robin Fowler, MD, in 2008 and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of 10 healthcare companies and over $35 million in annual revenues. Dr. Fowler, who serves as the company's medical director, has been one of the leading pain practitioners in the east Atlanta area since 2005 and has performed more than 5,000 epidurals and pain procedures.
Medical Consulting Group. Established in 1998, MCG has grown from a small start-up consulting firm with one employee to more than 40 employees in Springfield, Mo., and Fayetteville, Ariz. The firm specializes in medical consulting, both at the surgical practice and corporate levels, and provides ASC development and management solutions for single, multi-specialty and hospital joint-venture facilities. MCG offers a variety of services to its facilities, including IT set-up and support, employee benefits services, billing, coding and accounting, among others. Its team includes Stephen C. Sheppard, CPA, and Rob McCarville, MPA. MCG has completed over 20 centers and currently has more than 10 ASCs under various stages of development.
Medical Facilities Corp. MFC owns majority interest in two ASCs and four specialty surgical hospitals in South Dakota, Oklahoma and California. The company is run by CEO Donald Schellpfeffer, MD, who co-founded the company, and brilliant, focused leader Larry Teuber, MD, a board-certified neurological surgeon and physician executive of Black Hills Surgical Hospital. MFC is noted in the hospital industry for very focused leadership and critical thinking. MFC, which was developed by the physicians of Black Hills Surgery Center and Sioux Falls Surgical Center in South Dakota, is considered Canadian property and is publicly on the Toronto stock exchange. MFC's management philosophy focuses on efficiency and productivity of its facilities and strives to maintain competitive rates in order to generate superior margins relative to its competitors.
Medical Surgical Partners. MSP offers turnkey development and consulting services to ASCs that remain 100-percent locally owned and managed. MSP does not require any ownership equity in a facility. The company is led by David Thoene, who has 27 years of experience consulting for and developing ASCs throughout the United States. Before founding MSP, Mr. Thoene was the vice president of development for FSC Health and Titan Health Corp. and founded the development arm of Randlett Associates. Since 1982, Mr. Thoene has developed and consulted for more than 40 physician-owned ASCs and surgical hospitals and hospital/physician joint-venture surgery centers.
Meridian Surgical Partners. Meridian Surgical Partners specializes in ASC acquisition, development, management and turnaround in partnership with its physicians. The company was founded by three healthcare industry veterans and is currently led by renowned CEO David "Buddy" F. Bacon, Jr., who previously served as CEO and CFO for Medifax-EDI, Inc., a healthcare IT company in Tennessee. Meridian's management team also features the really smart president and chief development officer Kenneth Hancock, former CDO and co-founder of Surgical Alliance Corporation, a specialty surgical hospital company. Meridian has greatly reduced the industry standard ratio of facilities to operations, giving its physicians access to senior management and ensuring that facility relationships are founded on communication rather than a standard formula. In Oct. 2010, Meridian acquired the single-specialty ASC City Place Surgery Center in Creve Coeur, Mo. Mr. Bacon said about the acquisition, "We are extremely excited about this new partnership and the growth opportunities it presents … We look forward to partnering with the physicians and staff for continued success."
Mowles Medical Practice Management. Founded in 1996, MMPM has spent the last 15 years dedicated to assisting pain management and other specialists develop efficient and productive ASCs. MMPM CEO Amy Mowles has an expertise in pain management almost unequaled in the ASC industry, and her experience with CMS policy analysts as well as ASC and pain management societies have cemented her reputation as a leading expert in the ASC field. To date, MMPM has successfully developed more than 35 ASCs, the majority of them pain management-focused, and is currently developing five more.
Murphy Healthcare. Under the leadership of founder and CEO Robert Murphy, Murphy Healthcare has developed over 30 ASCs. Murphy Healthcare's ASC Turnaround Group rehabilitates failing or ailing ASCs throughout the country, the first being a success story in Seminole, Fla., where a failing surgery center achieved a 75 percent increase in case volume and a 20 percent reduction in cost. Murphy Healthcare is renowned for its smart, creative leadership. In addition to development and management, Mr. Murphy runs Murphy Healthcare's central data processing center in Montvale, N.J., which provides billing services to dozens of independently owned and operated ASCs. Mr. Murphy is assisted in the management of Murphy Healthcare by president Bill Mena and COO John Murphy.
National Surgical Care. NSC operates 18 centers around the country in partnership with physicians and hospitals. By the end of 2010, centers managed by NSC will perform over 115,000 cases, support 300 physician partners and include four hospital partners. The company is headed by chairman and CEO Sami S. Abbasi, who previously served as president and CEO of Radiologix, a leading national provider of diagnostic imaging services. National Surgical Care's surgery center development and management is led by company president Richard D. Pence, who previously served as COO for MAGELLA Healthcare and COO of National Surgery Centers.
Nikitis Resource Group. NRG provides a full range of ambulatory surgery center services, including ASC development and management, AAACH accreditation and operations analysis. The company was founded by Tom Galouzis. MD, and its leadership includes industry veterans such as Bob Scheller, CPA, CASC, and Gregory Nowak, MD.
NovaMed. NovaMed acquires, develops and manages surgery centers in partnership with physicians. The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange. Founded in 1995, the company went public in 1999 and is currently run by chairman and CEO Thomas S. Hall, executive vice president and CFO Scott T. Macomber and executive vice president of operations Graham B. Cherrington. NovaMed is known for having a great and disciplined management team, which includes smart, motivated leaders William Kennedy, senior vice president of business development, Thomas Chirillo, senior vice president of corporate development, and John Lawrence, Jr., senior vice president and general counsel. The
company has ASCs all over the United States and currently operates more than 35 centers.
Nueterra Healthcare. Nueterra Healthcare partners with physicians and hospitals to develop and manage community hospitals, surgical hospitals, ASCs and physical therapy centers including new development, joint ventures, acquisitions and turnarounds. The company's executive leadership includes CEO David Ayers, who has extensive experience working with physicians and health systems to develop successful partnerships, and CFO Kevin Standefer, who has a strong financial background and served as senior internal auditor for one of the largest publicly-traded healthcare companies in the country prior to joining Nueterra. Since 1997, Nueterra has worked with more than 1,200 physicians and established more than 85 surgical and outpatient facilities across the country.
Orion Medical Services. Orion Medical Services specializes in developing and managing ASCs and medical office buildings and lets physicians retain a majority interest in the center's business. The company is led by outstanding leader James H. Cobb, who founded the company in 1997 and currently serves as president and CEO. In the past 12 years, Mr. Cobb has developed, constructed and managed seven high-volume ASCs, and he has been a member of the Medical Group Management Association for 20 years. Orion Medical Services currently has a number of centers in Oregon, Colorado and Texas and lends its specialized experience and expertise to neurospine surgery centers in particular. In 2010, Orion Medical Services announced the launching of several websites for its surgery centers, including the Littleton (Colo.) Day Surgery Center, Kerryville (Texas) Surgery Center and Columbia Gorge Surgery Center in The Dalles, Ore.
Ortmann Healthcare Consultants. Based in Columbia, S.C., with offices in Chelan, Wash., Ortmann Healthcare Consultants specializes in the development of both single-specialty and multi-specialty ASCs. Founder and CEO Fred W. Ortmann III has over 30 years of experience in various aspects of healthcare, including 25 years as a hospital administrator and 10 years as the vice president of center development for a premier developer and operator of surgery centers. Ortmann currently operates nine surgery centers in various states, including North and South Carolina, Texas, Colorado and Florida.
Physicians Endoscopy. As the country's premier GI/endoscopy-driven ASC company, PE is focused exclusively on developing and managing single-specialty endoscopy centers. PE has an outstanding core management team and typically owns a minority interest in the centers it manages. Founded in 1998, the company currently manages 17 endoscopy centers and is led by Barry Tanner, CPA, president and CEO. Mr. Tanner joined PE in July 1999 after serving as CFO and co-founder of Navix Radiology Systems, a physician practice management company based in Miami. Physicians Endoscopy's management team includes clear-thinking industry leaders Karen Sablyak and John Poisson, who serve as CFO and executive vice president of new business development, respectively. Ms. Sablyak has worked as vice president of practice management for Allegheny University Hospitals, while Mr. Poisson came to PE from Transcend Services. In Jan. 2010, Physicians Endoscopy announced the commencement of operations at East Side Endoscopy in Manhattan, a collaboration between PE and Beth Israel Medical Center. The company also appointed a new COO during 2010, hiring Frank Principati to take responsibility for strategic and operational leadership of the company's operations.
Pinnacle III. Pinnacle III is a leading provider of development and management services to physician-driven ASCs as well as hospital joint ventures. Pinnacle III's leadership team includes Rick DeHart, CEO, Rob Carrera, president, and Scott Thomas, executive vice president. Lisa Austin, vice president of ASC operations for Pinnacle III, has extensive experience in ASC operation and development and serves on the board of CASCA, the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association. The company also recently added director of marketing and sales Simon Schwartz to the team, who joined Pinnacle III from the ASC Association, where he spent five years planning, managing and executing medical conferences and trade shows. The company offers both equity and non-equity models, though it is focusing on the expansion of its surgical network through equity ownership. Since 1999, the company has delivered a comprehensive range of services and solutions to 35 ASCs — from single-specialty physician-owned ASCs, to multi-specialty joint ventures with hospital partners.
Practice Partners in Healthcare. PPH is a developer, manager and minor equity share holder in ASCs, a privately held company dedicated to the management and operation of its ASCs. The company is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., and was founded by respected industry veteran Larry Taylor in 2005. PPH currently has seven surgery centers in operation and six additional centers in the development and construction phase. Practice Partners is led by president and CEO Larry Taylor and COO Mike Rickman, who tout a physician-focused model. The company is noted for its hands-on approach to management and high-integrity leaders. PPH's management team has ASC operational experience in 34 states, including both CON and non-CON states, with success in obtaining CONs in difficult environments.
Regent Surgical Health. Founded in 2001, Regent Surgical Health has grown to develop, manage and own 15 ASCs and two specialty hospitals across the United States. Regent is a privately held company. Headquartered in suburban Chicago, Regent is led by Harvard Business School graduates Thomas Mallon and W. Michael Karnes, who founded the company together and currently serve as CEO and CFO, respectively. Regent's management team also includes COO Nap Gary, who previously served as senior vice president and assistant corporate counsel for HealthSouth Corporation, and CDO Jeff Simmons, who has led two specialty hospitals and one full-service acute-care hospital and oversees Regent's acquisition and development efforts. Bo Hjorth, vice president of business development, also makes valuable contributions to the Regent team.
RMC MedStone Capital. RMC Medstone Capital was founded when RM Crowe, leading real estate developer and property manager in Dallas, purchased TruMedical Partners. MedStone is led by CEO R. Maurice Crowe, Jr., who formerly served as a senior financial officer with Criswell Development Company and focuses on new business and acquisitions for RMC. The RMC MedStone model is to acquire an appropriate percentage of each facility and to manage the operations and growth of the facility's caseload and profitability through its affiliated entity, RMC MedStone Management. RMC MedStone Capital's plan for growth includes the addition of surgery centers and hospitals throughout the country, including both existing facilities and de novo projects.
Solara Surgical Partners. Started in 2008, Solara Surgical Partners develops and manages ASCs and other surgical facilities across the United States. The company's principals, Ken Ross, Bill Murphy and Andrea Kingsley, have a successful track record of over 75 surgical facility projects. Mr. Ross serves as the company's CEO, while Mr. Murphy serves as COO. The leadership team also includes Matt Parra, who serves as vice president of acquisitions and development and previously served as senior vice president with ASCOA.
Smithfield Medical Development. Together with its physician partners, Smithfield Medical Development creates and manages medical developments that merge high caliber patient care with real estate development trends. The company focuses on the enhancement of physician profitability and has experience in the development of medical office buildings, surgical facilities and medical malls. Smithfield maintains minority ownership in its surgical facilities.
Sovereign Healthcare. Sovereign Healthcare is a privately held company based in Orange County, Calif., that partners with physicians for the ownership and management of ASCs. The company was founded in 2002 by a group of healthcare industry veterans who had been involved in the development and management of major acute-care hospitals, specialty hospitals, surgery centers and other healthcare ventures. The company is headed by Jeremy Hogue, president and CEO, who co-founded Sovereign Healthcare and previously served as vice president of $1 billion private equity investment firm Audax Group.
Specialty Surgery Centers of America. Specialty Surgery Centers of America, based in Texas, was formed to assist physicians and management companies in developing and operating ASCs. SSCA currently operates two surgery centers and is in the process of opening a third in Lebanon, Texas. SSCA is run by president Keith Bolton, who previously worked for Humana, served as CEO of a California hospital and ran the Texas division of Heritage Surgical Corp.
Surgem. The principals of development and management company Surgem have been successfully managing ASCs since 1992. The company currently oversees surgery centers in New Jersey, Florida, New York and various other states. The company is led by John Hajjar, MD, chairman, CEO and chief medical officer, who developed one of the first ASCs in New Jersey and has been managing facilities profitably since 1992.
SurgCenter Development. Run by founding principals Gregory George, MD, and Sean O'Neal, among others, SurgCenter Development specializes in developing multi-specialty surgery centers averaging around 5,000 square feet. The company has developed ASCs across the United States, with the highest concentration in Missouri, California and Maryland. SurgCenter has developed over 60 profitable, physician-owned ASCs under the leadership of Dr. George and Mr. O'Neal. Dr. George is a practicing ophthalmologist with insight into surgeon needs, while Mr. O'Neal served as a hospital CEO for 20 years and developed his first physician joint venture ASC with Dr. George before founding SurgCenter Development.
Surgery Center Partners. Founded by Samuel Marcus, MD, PhD, and George Tinawi, MD, Surgery Center Partners has a physician-centered approach that provides physician partners with majority control of their surgery centers. With a motivated and insightful leadership team, Surgery Center Partnership focuses on GI-driven ASCs and has more than 16 affiliated ASCs, a majority of which are single-specialty endoscopy centers.
Surgery Partners. Surgery Partners acquires, develops and manages free-standing ASCs in partnership with leading physicians and currently owns and operates 11 ASCs in the southeast. In Jan. 2010, H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private equity firm, announced the completion of a majority investment in the Tampa-based company. Surgery Partners is led by CEO Michael Doyle, who most recently spent 10 years in a large, corporate healthcare organization, and vice president of operations Jeff Park, who joined the company in June 2006 after spending 10 years managing diagnostic, surgery and rehabilitation centers in the southeast.
Surgery One. Surgery One manages four multi-specialty ASCs in the San Diego, Calif. area. The four centers offer orthopedic, sports medicine, pain management and bariatric services. The four locations include a network of physicians and offer cutting-edge technology to perform surgical services. The centers specialize in various procedures, including arthritis/minimally invasive hip and knee solutions, weight loss, back and neck pain treatment, hand/carpal tunnel and upper extremities, hernia treatment, sports medicine and chronic pain management.
Surgical Care Affiliates. SCA currently operates more than 125 ASCs and three surgical hospitals across the country and now has more than 2,000 physician partners. A growing force is the important market segment of physician/hospital joint ventures, the company is led by president and CEO Andrew Hayek, who joined SCA after serving as president of a division of DaVita Inc., a $6 billion publicly traded renal dialysis company. Mr. Hayek also served as chair of the ASC Advocacy Committee, launched in Aug. 2009 to advocate for ASCs on topics of health reform. Joe Clark, SCA's executive vice president and CDO, previously served as president and CEO for HealthMark Partners and as CEO of Response Oncology, a publicly traded cancer management company. Oct. 2010, the company announced the appointment of a new executive vice president and CFO, Gregory Cunniff, who has more than 20 years of healthcare experience and worked at surgery center development and management company Medical Care America. Mr. Cunniff has served as board member and treasurer of the ASC Association since 2007 and previously served as western CFO of HCA's ambulatory surgery division.
Surgical Development Partners. Surgical Development Partners is a privately held company that develops and manages surgical facilities including ASCs and surgical hospitals. The company has completed surgery center development projects in a number of states, including Ohio, New Mexico and Tennessee. The company is led by president and CEO G. Edward Alexander, who previously served as CEO of Surgical Alliance Corporation, a company focused on musculoskeletal hospital development and management. SDP's current projects include Park West Surgical Center in Akron, Ohio and Summit-Medina Ambulatory Surgery Center in Medina, Ohio.
Surgical Health Group. During the last 17 years, the leadership team at Surgical Health Group has helped start over 150 surgery centers, offering turnkey solutions to physicians to develop quality physician-owned centers. SHG's services include human resources management, financial analysis, accreditation, design and construction, compliance issues and many others. The company is run by Rodney H. Lunn.
Surgical Management Professionals. SMP specializes in the management and development of ASCs and surgical specialty hospitals. In Oct. 2010, SMP announced Michael Lipomi as the company's new president and CEO. Mr. Lipomi most recently served as president of RMC MedStone Capital and has served on the board of directors of the ASC Association, California Ambulatory Surgery Association and Physician Hospitals of America, of which he is a co-founder. SMP is also led by Kyle Goldammer, MBA, senior vice president of financial services. The company provides comprehensive management and development services to more than 10 ASCs throughout the Midwest and Canada and has recently been involved in a number of hospital joint-venture ASCs in CON states.
Symbion Healthcare. Symbion Healthcare was founded in 1999 to acquire, develop and operate short-stay surgical facilities in partnership with physicians, hospitals and health systems. Through continued capital investment and flexible partnership arrangements, the company's network has grown to include more than 70 short-stay surgical facilities across 27 states. Symbion has 3,000 employees and more than 1,100 physician partners and is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn. The company is led by president Clifford G. Adlerz, who has served in the role since May 2002 and as COO and a Symbion director since the company's inception, and CEO Richard E. Francis. Mr. Francis has served as CEO of Symbion since the company's inception in 1999 and previously served as president and CEO of UniPhy, an operator of multi-specialty clinics, independent practice associations and related outpatient services. Vice president of acquisitions and development Michael Weaver has worked to develop long-term partnerships and joint ventures opportunities for Symbion for more than a decade.
Titan Health Corp. Titan, established in 1999, manages and develops specialty-focused surgery centers with an emphasis on orthopedics, spine and neurosurgery and pain management, on a national basis. Titan's leadership includes such industry leaders as Chairman David Hall, president and CEO Marc Jang, and CFO Boyd Faust, CPA. Titan typically maintains a minority interest position and has a solid reputation as a smart and trustworthy partner. The company currently manages 16 ASCs across the United States.
TRY Healthcare Solutions. TRY Healthcare Solutions was founded by Tom Yerden, an ASC veteran and who previously founded Aspen Healthcare, which was sold under his leadership to TLC Vision Corporation and then to National Surgical Care. The company provides consulting services for de novo hospital/physician partnership models, expanding existing outpatient surgery enterprises, resyndications and operational improvement and profitability strategies. Mr. Yerden has helped establish more than 35 ASC joint ventures since 1992.
United Surgical Partners International. USPI develops and manages more than 150 different facilities, principally surgery centers, and serves as a true leader in ventures involving ASCs, hospitals and physicians. Most of its centers have a non-profit health system joint-venture partner, and more than 6,500 physicians will use USPI's facilities this year. The company has also partnered with more than 2,800 individual surgeons in the ownership of its surgical facilities. USPI's leadership team includes talented veterans such as chairman Don Steen and CEO Bill Wilcox, as well as CDO Brett Brodnax, who worked for Baylor Health Care System for 10 years before joining the company in 1999, and vice president and general counsel Jason Cagle. USPI was founded in 1998 by Mr. Steen and major stockholder Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. The company went public in 2001 and was taken private again in April 2007. In the third quarter of 2010, USPI acquired Nashville, Tenn.-based ASC operator HealthMark, which is led by Bill Southwick.
Ambulatory Healthcare Strategies. Ambulatory Healthcare Strategies was founded in 2009 by John J. Goehle, MBA, and Vito Quatela, MD. Most of AHS' surgery centers are located in the northeast United States. Mr. Goehle, who serves as the company's COO, has written four books about ASCs and says, "AHS focuses on providing an alternative to traditional management companies by focusing on surgery centers that don't need all the resources of a management company, but would like to receive some of the same services that they usually offer." Dr. Quatela is a board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and the immediate past president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. He has developed and owns two surgery centers in Rochester, N.Y. The company provides administrative, oversight and consulting services for surgery centers.
Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America. Led by CEO Luke Lambert, CFO Robert Westergard and founders Brent Lambert, MD and Tom Bombardier, MD, ASCOA is one of the most renowned privately-held ASC chains in the country. ASCOA currently operates 34 facilities across the country with others in development. ASCOA is a physician-owned ASC development and management company that offers years of experience in real estate, staffing, training, equipping, licensure, accreditation and compliance from a group of all-surgeon principals. The company was formed by Dr. Lambert, Dr. Bombardier and George Violin, MD and has a record of successful ASC turnarounds, correcting major problems such as poor management, inefficiencies caused by overbuilding and loose scheduling, lack of surgeon recruitment and lower-than-optimal reimbursement per case.
Ambulatory Surgical Group. ASG was founded in 2008 by long-term ASC veterans John Seitz and Stuart Bruck, who currently serve as CEO and director of financial and strategic planning, respectively. Mr. Seitz came to Ambulatory Surgical Group from Surgem According to the ASG website, Mr. Seitz believes that a higher percentage of physician ownership means better participation by physicians in ASC operation. ASG currently works in New Jersey and several cities in California.
AmSurg. AmSurg, one of the few publicly-traded ASC companies, partners with over 1,200 physicians at more than 200 ASCs across the United States and strives to help its ASCs provide high-quality, low-cost surgical services coupled with great patient satisfaction. AmSurg is led by CEO and president Christopher Holden, a highly skilled leader who joined the company in 2007 from Triad Hospitals, where he served as senior vice president and division president. AmSurg has centers in 33 states.
Ascent Partners. Ascent Partners is run by partners H. Thomas Scott and W. Scott Riegle. Prior to owning Ascent, Mr. Scott, a certified public accountant, was a co-founder and senior vice president of a physician practice and ancillary management company, while Mr. Riegle served as director of operations for HealthSouth Corporation. Ascent Partners has developed and operated 18 ASCs throughout the United States.
Artisan Medical. Founded in 2003, Artisan Medical has grown by building relationships with key ASC industry leaders and focusing on cost-saving strategies for its facilities. The company is run by managing partner Jesse Chamberlain, who specializes in organizing strategic ASC partnership teams and recruiting surgeons. Mr. Chamberlain previously worked for Johnson & Johnson, Chiron Vision, Bausch&Lomb and managed Proctor & Gamble's co-op merchandising agreements compliance program. The company operates five surgery centers in Maryland and Virginia.
ASD Management. ASD Management (formerly Woodrum/Ambulatory Systems Development) is one of the largest and oldest privately-funded ASC companies in the United States. ASD is noted throughout the ASC industry for being a truly hands-on, high-integrity company. The company is run by Robert and Joe Zasa, both of whom are nationally recognized for ASC development and management and have led the company to develop and manage over 125 surgery centers since 1986. ASD focuses on hospital/physician joint ventures and is known in the industry for hands-on, business-focused leadership. The company also specializes in turnaround strategies for existing ASCs and de novo development.
Blue Chip Surgical Center Partners. Run by the highly-regarded CEO Jeff Leland, Blue Chip focuses on spine, multi-specialty and physician/hospital joint-venture ASCs and takes care of financial, payor, legal and operational matters so that its surgeon-partners can focus on their clinical practices. Blue Chip is a true leader in spine and in minority ownership interest. The company continues to partner with surgery centers across the country, announcing a partnership with Crane Creek Surgery Center in Melbourne, Fla., in early Nov. 2010. In 2010, Blue Chip has also announced several new key staff members, including Chris Bishop, who joined the company as partner and senior vice president of acquisitions and business development in March, and Kathleen Whitlow, who joined the company as COO in January.
Cirrus Health. Cirrus Health, which is led by CEO Donald C. Wilson, specializes in the management and development ASCs, as well as of multi-specialty and single-specialty surgical hospitals. The company was founded in 1999 and adapted its business model in 2005 to encompass development and management of physician-owned ASCs and short-stay hospitals, rather than simply development. Cirrus Health works to align with local physicians and community healthcare providers to provide the best patient care in its ASCs.
The C/N Group. Founded in 1980, The C/N Group began offering consulting and management expertise to the healthcare industry. The company is owned and managed by the Chopra family — Ravi, Raman and Rajiv. During its initial decade of operation, the firm's primary focus was physician practice management and consulting, after which it expanded its services to include the development and day-to-day operation of healthcare facilities. In the last 10 years, the C/N Group has completed projects totaling more than $75 million in cost. The family-owned company employs approximately 230 people at its New York, Indiana and Texas regional markets.
Constitution Surgery Centers. CSC has provided patients with surgical care for more than a decade. Based in Newington, Conn., CSC operates more than 10 single- and multi-specialty ASCs in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Founded in 1997, the company is led by co-founder, president and CEO Kris Mineau. Mr. Mineau was also the founding president of the Connecticut Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. In 2009, the company opened the Greater Springfield (Mass.) Surgery Center, a single-specialty ASC focused on urology.
Covenant Surgical Partners. Nashville, Tenn.-based Covenant Surgical Partners is led by Michael Koban, Jr., chairman of the board of directors, Richard Jacques, president and CEO, and Marnix E. Heersink, MD, vice chairman of the board of directors and chief medical officer. Mr. Koban has more than 25 years of experience as a senior executive in hospital management, while Mr. Jacques has held positions at Surgical Health Group and AmSurg. Covenant acquires and operates single- and limited-specialty surgery centers in partnership with physicians.
Ethos Partners. Ethos Partners offers turnkey ASC development and management solutions from a group of professionals who have worked with more than 150 ASCs across the country. The company's ambulatory surgery center solutions team includes Carolyn Axley, RN, Mark Dunlap and Andrew and Tina King. Mr. Dunlap has managed and/or developed over 100 ASCs and previously served as founder and principal of management and development firm Acumen Healthcare. He also served as vice president of HCA's ambulatory surgery division. Mr. Dunlap and Ms. King also worked for Acumen Healthcare prior to joining Ethos.
Elite Surgical Affiliates. Based in Houston, Elite Surgical Affiliates manages and has an interest in ASCs with surgeons. The company was founded by respected CEO Lori Ramirez, who has more than 12 years of experience in surgical development, operations and management and has successfully partnered with more than 350 surgeons. She has also played a critical role in recruiting more than 100 new surgeons and has successfully restructured and turned around failing partnerships. Elite Surgical Affiliates' management team specializes in operations, development, sales and marketing, financial management, syndications and clinical excellence programs.
Facility Development & Management. FDM is a for-profit limited liability corporation that provides consultative, developmental and managerial services for ASCs through the country. The company was founded in 1992 and currently helps ASCs provide quality surgical services to physicians and consumers. FDM partners in de novo centers with physicians and hospitals, as well as re-syndicating existing ASCs. According to its website, the company has partnered with its clients to open and operate more than 45 profitable centers, including gastroenterology, urology, pain management and orthopedic centers, among others. The company is headed by Edward P. Hetrick, president, who has over 30 years of experience in healthcare and has held management positions in major teaching institutions in the New York metropolitan area. He has been involved in the development of over 50 ASCs.
Foundation Surgery Affiliates. FSA was founded in 1996 by Thomas A. Michaud, a pioneer in the ASC industry, who continues to oversee the company's significant growth as chairman of the board. FSA offers turnkey management and development solutions for physician partners. FSA partners with physicians through investment in a minority ownership position, usually between 10-40 percent, and currently operates 14 ASCs in five states. All of the ASCs the company operates are multi-specialty facilities.
Global Surgical Partners. GSP focuses exclusively on the development and management of physician/hospital and physician-owned joint-venture ASCs. The company acquires minority interests in its center and currently manages eight surgery centers. Under the GSP model, each centers' activities are decentralized, but administrators are employed by GSP. The company is led by J. A. Ziskind, president and CEO, who has served in that position since the company's inception, and Ken Arvin, Esq., CFO and general counsel.
Hospital Corporation of America. HCA is the largest for-profit operator of hospitals in the country and currently operates approximately 105 freestanding surgery centers as well as its 163 hospitals in the United States and England. The company was one of the first hospital companies when it was founded in Nashville in 1968. HCA is led by chairman and CEO Richard M. Bracken, who has been with the company since 1981 and has held various executive positions within the company, including CEO of Green Hospital of Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in San Diego, Calif. The company's its outpatient services group is led by A. Bruce Moore, Jr.
Health Inventures. Health Inventures, founded by Richard Hanley, was one of the original non-equity management and development companies focused on the ASC industry. It is now often an equity partner in joint ventures as well as a manager and developer. Mr. Hanley and the rest of the company's management team have launched more than 100 surgery centers, surgical hospitals, imaging centers and medical office buildings, and managed more than $1 billion in revenues during their careers. The team includes industry experts Christian Ellison, vice president of business development, Dennis Martin, senior vice president of health systems and Thomas Wherry, MD, consulting medical director. Mr. Ellison has formed numerous physician-hospital joint ventures throughout his career and has helped build Health Inventures domestically and internationally during his 12 years with the company. Health Inventures currently manages more than 25 ASCs across the country.
Healthcare Venture Professionals. HVP is an ASC management company that specializes in multi-specialty, orthopedic, pain management, endoscopy, GI and hospital-owned surgery centers. The founders and principles of HVP are John Smalley and Chuck Owen, seasoned healthcare executives with more than 60 years of combined healthcare leadership experience. The company manages ASCs across the United States, with most facilities located in Michigan, Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina.
Innovative Surgical Solutions Management. Innovative Surgical Solutions Management partners with physicians and health systems to develop and operate ASCs, making surgery operations its sole business. The company is run by D. Jeffrey Sapp, former vice president of development for USPI, and Nancy Kastner, who each have years of healthcare management experience and have successfully turned around numerous failing centers. Founded in 2001, the company’s senior leadership has developed or managed more than 100 ASCs across the country.
Interventional Management Services. IMS is a physician-owned ASC management and development company that focuses on pain management physicians. Centers managed by IMS range from one-room, single-specialty centers to large multi-specialty physician/hospital joint ventures. The company has corporate offices in Atlanta and affiliate ASCs in Georgia, Texas and New Mexico, and it continues to expand throughout the country. The company is led by CEO Stephen Rosenbaum, who created the company with Robin Fowler, MD, in 2008 and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of 10 healthcare companies and over $35 million in annual revenues. Dr. Fowler, who serves as the company's medical director, has been one of the leading pain practitioners in the east Atlanta area since 2005 and has performed more than 5,000 epidurals and pain procedures.
Medical Consulting Group. Established in 1998, MCG has grown from a small start-up consulting firm with one employee to more than 40 employees in Springfield, Mo., and Fayetteville, Ariz. The firm specializes in medical consulting, both at the surgical practice and corporate levels, and provides ASC development and management solutions for single, multi-specialty and hospital joint-venture facilities. MCG offers a variety of services to its facilities, including IT set-up and support, employee benefits services, billing, coding and accounting, among others. Its team includes Stephen C. Sheppard, CPA, and Rob McCarville, MPA. MCG has completed over 20 centers and currently has more than 10 ASCs under various stages of development.
Medical Facilities Corp. MFC owns majority interest in two ASCs and four specialty surgical hospitals in South Dakota, Oklahoma and California. The company is run by CEO Donald Schellpfeffer, MD, who co-founded the company, and brilliant, focused leader Larry Teuber, MD, a board-certified neurological surgeon and physician executive of Black Hills Surgical Hospital. MFC is noted in the hospital industry for very focused leadership and critical thinking. MFC, which was developed by the physicians of Black Hills Surgery Center and Sioux Falls Surgical Center in South Dakota, is considered Canadian property and is publicly on the Toronto stock exchange. MFC's management philosophy focuses on efficiency and productivity of its facilities and strives to maintain competitive rates in order to generate superior margins relative to its competitors.
Medical Surgical Partners. MSP offers turnkey development and consulting services to ASCs that remain 100-percent locally owned and managed. MSP does not require any ownership equity in a facility. The company is led by David Thoene, who has 27 years of experience consulting for and developing ASCs throughout the United States. Before founding MSP, Mr. Thoene was the vice president of development for FSC Health and Titan Health Corp. and founded the development arm of Randlett Associates. Since 1982, Mr. Thoene has developed and consulted for more than 40 physician-owned ASCs and surgical hospitals and hospital/physician joint-venture surgery centers.
Meridian Surgical Partners. Meridian Surgical Partners specializes in ASC acquisition, development, management and turnaround in partnership with its physicians. The company was founded by three healthcare industry veterans and is currently led by renowned CEO David "Buddy" F. Bacon, Jr., who previously served as CEO and CFO for Medifax-EDI, Inc., a healthcare IT company in Tennessee. Meridian's management team also features the really smart president and chief development officer Kenneth Hancock, former CDO and co-founder of Surgical Alliance Corporation, a specialty surgical hospital company. Meridian has greatly reduced the industry standard ratio of facilities to operations, giving its physicians access to senior management and ensuring that facility relationships are founded on communication rather than a standard formula. In Oct. 2010, Meridian acquired the single-specialty ASC City Place Surgery Center in Creve Coeur, Mo. Mr. Bacon said about the acquisition, "We are extremely excited about this new partnership and the growth opportunities it presents … We look forward to partnering with the physicians and staff for continued success."
Mowles Medical Practice Management. Founded in 1996, MMPM has spent the last 15 years dedicated to assisting pain management and other specialists develop efficient and productive ASCs. MMPM CEO Amy Mowles has an expertise in pain management almost unequaled in the ASC industry, and her experience with CMS policy analysts as well as ASC and pain management societies have cemented her reputation as a leading expert in the ASC field. To date, MMPM has successfully developed more than 35 ASCs, the majority of them pain management-focused, and is currently developing five more.
Murphy Healthcare. Under the leadership of founder and CEO Robert Murphy, Murphy Healthcare has developed over 30 ASCs. Murphy Healthcare's ASC Turnaround Group rehabilitates failing or ailing ASCs throughout the country, the first being a success story in Seminole, Fla., where a failing surgery center achieved a 75 percent increase in case volume and a 20 percent reduction in cost. Murphy Healthcare is renowned for its smart, creative leadership. In addition to development and management, Mr. Murphy runs Murphy Healthcare's central data processing center in Montvale, N.J., which provides billing services to dozens of independently owned and operated ASCs. Mr. Murphy is assisted in the management of Murphy Healthcare by president Bill Mena and COO John Murphy.
National Surgical Care. NSC operates 18 centers around the country in partnership with physicians and hospitals. By the end of 2010, centers managed by NSC will perform over 115,000 cases, support 300 physician partners and include four hospital partners. The company is headed by chairman and CEO Sami S. Abbasi, who previously served as president and CEO of Radiologix, a leading national provider of diagnostic imaging services. National Surgical Care's surgery center development and management is led by company president Richard D. Pence, who previously served as COO for MAGELLA Healthcare and COO of National Surgery Centers.
Nikitis Resource Group. NRG provides a full range of ambulatory surgery center services, including ASC development and management, AAACH accreditation and operations analysis. The company was founded by Tom Galouzis. MD, and its leadership includes industry veterans such as Bob Scheller, CPA, CASC, and Gregory Nowak, MD.
NovaMed. NovaMed acquires, develops and manages surgery centers in partnership with physicians. The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange. Founded in 1995, the company went public in 1999 and is currently run by chairman and CEO Thomas S. Hall, executive vice president and CFO Scott T. Macomber and executive vice president of operations Graham B. Cherrington. NovaMed is known for having a great and disciplined management team, which includes smart, motivated leaders William Kennedy, senior vice president of business development, Thomas Chirillo, senior vice president of corporate development, and John Lawrence, Jr., senior vice president and general counsel. The
company has ASCs all over the United States and currently operates more than 35 centers.
Nueterra Healthcare. Nueterra Healthcare partners with physicians and hospitals to develop and manage community hospitals, surgical hospitals, ASCs and physical therapy centers including new development, joint ventures, acquisitions and turnarounds. The company's executive leadership includes CEO David Ayers, who has extensive experience working with physicians and health systems to develop successful partnerships, and CFO Kevin Standefer, who has a strong financial background and served as senior internal auditor for one of the largest publicly-traded healthcare companies in the country prior to joining Nueterra. Since 1997, Nueterra has worked with more than 1,200 physicians and established more than 85 surgical and outpatient facilities across the country.
Orion Medical Services. Orion Medical Services specializes in developing and managing ASCs and medical office buildings and lets physicians retain a majority interest in the center's business. The company is led by outstanding leader James H. Cobb, who founded the company in 1997 and currently serves as president and CEO. In the past 12 years, Mr. Cobb has developed, constructed and managed seven high-volume ASCs, and he has been a member of the Medical Group Management Association for 20 years. Orion Medical Services currently has a number of centers in Oregon, Colorado and Texas and lends its specialized experience and expertise to neurospine surgery centers in particular. In 2010, Orion Medical Services announced the launching of several websites for its surgery centers, including the Littleton (Colo.) Day Surgery Center, Kerryville (Texas) Surgery Center and Columbia Gorge Surgery Center in The Dalles, Ore.
Ortmann Healthcare Consultants. Based in Columbia, S.C., with offices in Chelan, Wash., Ortmann Healthcare Consultants specializes in the development of both single-specialty and multi-specialty ASCs. Founder and CEO Fred W. Ortmann III has over 30 years of experience in various aspects of healthcare, including 25 years as a hospital administrator and 10 years as the vice president of center development for a premier developer and operator of surgery centers. Ortmann currently operates nine surgery centers in various states, including North and South Carolina, Texas, Colorado and Florida.
Physicians Endoscopy. As the country's premier GI/endoscopy-driven ASC company, PE is focused exclusively on developing and managing single-specialty endoscopy centers. PE has an outstanding core management team and typically owns a minority interest in the centers it manages. Founded in 1998, the company currently manages 17 endoscopy centers and is led by Barry Tanner, CPA, president and CEO. Mr. Tanner joined PE in July 1999 after serving as CFO and co-founder of Navix Radiology Systems, a physician practice management company based in Miami. Physicians Endoscopy's management team includes clear-thinking industry leaders Karen Sablyak and John Poisson, who serve as CFO and executive vice president of new business development, respectively. Ms. Sablyak has worked as vice president of practice management for Allegheny University Hospitals, while Mr. Poisson came to PE from Transcend Services. In Jan. 2010, Physicians Endoscopy announced the commencement of operations at East Side Endoscopy in Manhattan, a collaboration between PE and Beth Israel Medical Center. The company also appointed a new COO during 2010, hiring Frank Principati to take responsibility for strategic and operational leadership of the company's operations.
Pinnacle III. Pinnacle III is a leading provider of development and management services to physician-driven ASCs as well as hospital joint ventures. Pinnacle III's leadership team includes Rick DeHart, CEO, Rob Carrera, president, and Scott Thomas, executive vice president. Lisa Austin, vice president of ASC operations for Pinnacle III, has extensive experience in ASC operation and development and serves on the board of CASCA, the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association. The company also recently added director of marketing and sales Simon Schwartz to the team, who joined Pinnacle III from the ASC Association, where he spent five years planning, managing and executing medical conferences and trade shows. The company offers both equity and non-equity models, though it is focusing on the expansion of its surgical network through equity ownership. Since 1999, the company has delivered a comprehensive range of services and solutions to 35 ASCs — from single-specialty physician-owned ASCs, to multi-specialty joint ventures with hospital partners.
Practice Partners in Healthcare. PPH is a developer, manager and minor equity share holder in ASCs, a privately held company dedicated to the management and operation of its ASCs. The company is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., and was founded by respected industry veteran Larry Taylor in 2005. PPH currently has seven surgery centers in operation and six additional centers in the development and construction phase. Practice Partners is led by president and CEO Larry Taylor and COO Mike Rickman, who tout a physician-focused model. The company is noted for its hands-on approach to management and high-integrity leaders. PPH's management team has ASC operational experience in 34 states, including both CON and non-CON states, with success in obtaining CONs in difficult environments.
Regent Surgical Health. Founded in 2001, Regent Surgical Health has grown to develop, manage and own 15 ASCs and two specialty hospitals across the United States. Regent is a privately held company. Headquartered in suburban Chicago, Regent is led by Harvard Business School graduates Thomas Mallon and W. Michael Karnes, who founded the company together and currently serve as CEO and CFO, respectively. Regent's management team also includes COO Nap Gary, who previously served as senior vice president and assistant corporate counsel for HealthSouth Corporation, and CDO Jeff Simmons, who has led two specialty hospitals and one full-service acute-care hospital and oversees Regent's acquisition and development efforts. Bo Hjorth, vice president of business development, also makes valuable contributions to the Regent team.
RMC MedStone Capital. RMC Medstone Capital was founded when RM Crowe, leading real estate developer and property manager in Dallas, purchased TruMedical Partners. MedStone is led by CEO R. Maurice Crowe, Jr., who formerly served as a senior financial officer with Criswell Development Company and focuses on new business and acquisitions for RMC. The RMC MedStone model is to acquire an appropriate percentage of each facility and to manage the operations and growth of the facility's caseload and profitability through its affiliated entity, RMC MedStone Management. RMC MedStone Capital's plan for growth includes the addition of surgery centers and hospitals throughout the country, including both existing facilities and de novo projects.
Solara Surgical Partners. Started in 2008, Solara Surgical Partners develops and manages ASCs and other surgical facilities across the United States. The company's principals, Ken Ross, Bill Murphy and Andrea Kingsley, have a successful track record of over 75 surgical facility projects. Mr. Ross serves as the company's CEO, while Mr. Murphy serves as COO. The leadership team also includes Matt Parra, who serves as vice president of acquisitions and development and previously served as senior vice president with ASCOA.
Smithfield Medical Development. Together with its physician partners, Smithfield Medical Development creates and manages medical developments that merge high caliber patient care with real estate development trends. The company focuses on the enhancement of physician profitability and has experience in the development of medical office buildings, surgical facilities and medical malls. Smithfield maintains minority ownership in its surgical facilities.
Sovereign Healthcare. Sovereign Healthcare is a privately held company based in Orange County, Calif., that partners with physicians for the ownership and management of ASCs. The company was founded in 2002 by a group of healthcare industry veterans who had been involved in the development and management of major acute-care hospitals, specialty hospitals, surgery centers and other healthcare ventures. The company is headed by Jeremy Hogue, president and CEO, who co-founded Sovereign Healthcare and previously served as vice president of $1 billion private equity investment firm Audax Group.
Specialty Surgery Centers of America. Specialty Surgery Centers of America, based in Texas, was formed to assist physicians and management companies in developing and operating ASCs. SSCA currently operates two surgery centers and is in the process of opening a third in Lebanon, Texas. SSCA is run by president Keith Bolton, who previously worked for Humana, served as CEO of a California hospital and ran the Texas division of Heritage Surgical Corp.
Surgem. The principals of development and management company Surgem have been successfully managing ASCs since 1992. The company currently oversees surgery centers in New Jersey, Florida, New York and various other states. The company is led by John Hajjar, MD, chairman, CEO and chief medical officer, who developed one of the first ASCs in New Jersey and has been managing facilities profitably since 1992.
SurgCenter Development. Run by founding principals Gregory George, MD, and Sean O'Neal, among others, SurgCenter Development specializes in developing multi-specialty surgery centers averaging around 5,000 square feet. The company has developed ASCs across the United States, with the highest concentration in Missouri, California and Maryland. SurgCenter has developed over 60 profitable, physician-owned ASCs under the leadership of Dr. George and Mr. O'Neal. Dr. George is a practicing ophthalmologist with insight into surgeon needs, while Mr. O'Neal served as a hospital CEO for 20 years and developed his first physician joint venture ASC with Dr. George before founding SurgCenter Development.
Surgery Center Partners. Founded by Samuel Marcus, MD, PhD, and George Tinawi, MD, Surgery Center Partners has a physician-centered approach that provides physician partners with majority control of their surgery centers. With a motivated and insightful leadership team, Surgery Center Partnership focuses on GI-driven ASCs and has more than 16 affiliated ASCs, a majority of which are single-specialty endoscopy centers.
Surgery Partners. Surgery Partners acquires, develops and manages free-standing ASCs in partnership with leading physicians and currently owns and operates 11 ASCs in the southeast. In Jan. 2010, H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private equity firm, announced the completion of a majority investment in the Tampa-based company. Surgery Partners is led by CEO Michael Doyle, who most recently spent 10 years in a large, corporate healthcare organization, and vice president of operations Jeff Park, who joined the company in June 2006 after spending 10 years managing diagnostic, surgery and rehabilitation centers in the southeast.
Surgery One. Surgery One manages four multi-specialty ASCs in the San Diego, Calif. area. The four centers offer orthopedic, sports medicine, pain management and bariatric services. The four locations include a network of physicians and offer cutting-edge technology to perform surgical services. The centers specialize in various procedures, including arthritis/minimally invasive hip and knee solutions, weight loss, back and neck pain treatment, hand/carpal tunnel and upper extremities, hernia treatment, sports medicine and chronic pain management.
Surgical Care Affiliates. SCA currently operates more than 125 ASCs and three surgical hospitals across the country and now has more than 2,000 physician partners. A growing force is the important market segment of physician/hospital joint ventures, the company is led by president and CEO Andrew Hayek, who joined SCA after serving as president of a division of DaVita Inc., a $6 billion publicly traded renal dialysis company. Mr. Hayek also served as chair of the ASC Advocacy Committee, launched in Aug. 2009 to advocate for ASCs on topics of health reform. Joe Clark, SCA's executive vice president and CDO, previously served as president and CEO for HealthMark Partners and as CEO of Response Oncology, a publicly traded cancer management company. Oct. 2010, the company announced the appointment of a new executive vice president and CFO, Gregory Cunniff, who has more than 20 years of healthcare experience and worked at surgery center development and management company Medical Care America. Mr. Cunniff has served as board member and treasurer of the ASC Association since 2007 and previously served as western CFO of HCA's ambulatory surgery division.
Surgical Development Partners. Surgical Development Partners is a privately held company that develops and manages surgical facilities including ASCs and surgical hospitals. The company has completed surgery center development projects in a number of states, including Ohio, New Mexico and Tennessee. The company is led by president and CEO G. Edward Alexander, who previously served as CEO of Surgical Alliance Corporation, a company focused on musculoskeletal hospital development and management. SDP's current projects include Park West Surgical Center in Akron, Ohio and Summit-Medina Ambulatory Surgery Center in Medina, Ohio.
Surgical Health Group. During the last 17 years, the leadership team at Surgical Health Group has helped start over 150 surgery centers, offering turnkey solutions to physicians to develop quality physician-owned centers. SHG's services include human resources management, financial analysis, accreditation, design and construction, compliance issues and many others. The company is run by Rodney H. Lunn.
Surgical Management Professionals. SMP specializes in the management and development of ASCs and surgical specialty hospitals. In Oct. 2010, SMP announced Michael Lipomi as the company's new president and CEO. Mr. Lipomi most recently served as president of RMC MedStone Capital and has served on the board of directors of the ASC Association, California Ambulatory Surgery Association and Physician Hospitals of America, of which he is a co-founder. SMP is also led by Kyle Goldammer, MBA, senior vice president of financial services. The company provides comprehensive management and development services to more than 10 ASCs throughout the Midwest and Canada and has recently been involved in a number of hospital joint-venture ASCs in CON states.
Symbion Healthcare. Symbion Healthcare was founded in 1999 to acquire, develop and operate short-stay surgical facilities in partnership with physicians, hospitals and health systems. Through continued capital investment and flexible partnership arrangements, the company's network has grown to include more than 70 short-stay surgical facilities across 27 states. Symbion has 3,000 employees and more than 1,100 physician partners and is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn. The company is led by president Clifford G. Adlerz, who has served in the role since May 2002 and as COO and a Symbion director since the company's inception, and CEO Richard E. Francis. Mr. Francis has served as CEO of Symbion since the company's inception in 1999 and previously served as president and CEO of UniPhy, an operator of multi-specialty clinics, independent practice associations and related outpatient services. Vice president of acquisitions and development Michael Weaver has worked to develop long-term partnerships and joint ventures opportunities for Symbion for more than a decade.
Titan Health Corp. Titan, established in 1999, manages and develops specialty-focused surgery centers with an emphasis on orthopedics, spine and neurosurgery and pain management, on a national basis. Titan's leadership includes such industry leaders as Chairman David Hall, president and CEO Marc Jang, and CFO Boyd Faust, CPA. Titan typically maintains a minority interest position and has a solid reputation as a smart and trustworthy partner. The company currently manages 16 ASCs across the United States.
TRY Healthcare Solutions. TRY Healthcare Solutions was founded by Tom Yerden, an ASC veteran and who previously founded Aspen Healthcare, which was sold under his leadership to TLC Vision Corporation and then to National Surgical Care. The company provides consulting services for de novo hospital/physician partnership models, expanding existing outpatient surgery enterprises, resyndications and operational improvement and profitability strategies. Mr. Yerden has helped establish more than 35 ASC joint ventures since 1992.
United Surgical Partners International. USPI develops and manages more than 150 different facilities, principally surgery centers, and serves as a true leader in ventures involving ASCs, hospitals and physicians. Most of its centers have a non-profit health system joint-venture partner, and more than 6,500 physicians will use USPI's facilities this year. The company has also partnered with more than 2,800 individual surgeons in the ownership of its surgical facilities. USPI's leadership team includes talented veterans such as chairman Don Steen and CEO Bill Wilcox, as well as CDO Brett Brodnax, who worked for Baylor Health Care System for 10 years before joining the company in 1999, and vice president and general counsel Jason Cagle. USPI was founded in 1998 by Mr. Steen and major stockholder Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. The company went public in 2001 and was taken private again in April 2007. In the third quarter of 2010, USPI acquired Nashville, Tenn.-based ASC operator HealthMark, which is led by Bill Southwick.