Strategic Merger will Enable Integrated Emergency Medicine Specialists to Leverage Emergency Care Partner's Resources for Emergency Department Services and Growth.

PENSACOLA, FL / ACCESSWIRE / September 21, 2023 / Emergency Care Partners ('ECP'), a leading national physician-owned emergency medicine service provider, announced today the completion of a strategic merger with Integrated Emergency Medicine Specialists ('IEMS'). IEMS has served the Naples, FL, community since 2015, providing premier emergency department management services to its partner hospitals.

IEMS will continue a service-first approach to support its client emergency departments while leveraging ECP's unique model of combining local physician equity partnerships and a differentiated clinical analytics platform focused on high-quality patient care.

ECP Chief Executive Officer, Bill Yarbrough, said, 'We are very excited to welcome IEMS and their providers as a regional physician group practice of Emergency Care Partners. Their strong clinical leadership and reputation in the local community make them an ideal addition to our national group partnership of physician practices. We are excited to work with Dr. Brown to leverage our resources to deepen their relationships with key health system partners and continue to grow their local practice.

The ECP physician partnership model now serves 56 clinical locations, supported by a combined clinical workforce of more than 1,000 physicians and advanced practice providers, treating 1.4 million patients annually.

ECP is backed by financial sponsors Varsity Healthcare Partners ('VHP') and Regal Healthcare Capital Partners ('Regal').

'This partnership allows us to leverage ECP's infrastructure and resources to continue to deliver the highest quality care and experiences to our patients and strengthen our health system partnerships in Southwest Florida,' said IEMS President, Dr. Hunter Brown, D.O.

Massumi + Consoli LLP and Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP acted as legal advisers to ECP and VHP, while Dean Mead acted as legal advisors to IEMS. 

About Emergency Care Partners

Headquartered in Pensacola, Florida, ECP is a leading provider of emergency medicine and emergency department management services for hospitals across the U.S., with current operations in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. ECP sees 1.4 million patient visits annually across operations at 56 clinical programs, supported by a clinical workforce of 1,000+ physicians and advanced practice providers. ECP employs a differentiated model relative to other platforms in the emergency medicine space, highlighted by the ability to maintain ownership through its physician partnership model and the ability for regional/local groups to maintain their branding and clinical autonomy while still benefitting from ECP's significant back-office infrastructure. This critical infrastructure includes support for revenue cycle, financial and operational reporting, recruiting, training, compliance, contracting, scheduling, and payroll, among other functions. ECP's affiliated physician groups also have access to the national partnership's proprietary analytics platform, which operatively interfaces in real time with each hospital's IT platform to track and report daily key performance indicators (KPI) in the emergency room. These include throughput, capacity utilization, clinical quality metrics, and ancillary services reporting, which are used by ECP clinical and operational leaders and the hospitals themselves to drive quality service and outcomes and a consistent patient experience within each customer's emergency department. For more information, please visit www.ecp.net.

About Integrated Emergency Medicine Specialists ('IEMS').

Founded in October 2015 and headquartered in Naples, FL, IEMS is a leading provider of emergency department management services, focusing on process improvement and quality patient care. IEMS provides emergency department medical directorship and management services, including recruitment, credentialing, and qualifying for third-party billing contracts and requirements.

About Varsity Healthcare Partners

Varsity Healthcare Partners (VHP) is a lower middle-market private equity investment firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams to build leading healthcare services companies. VHP's unique tactical investment playbook and strong track record is complemented by VHP's distinct organizational culture, emphasizing highly collaborative engagement, strong professional accountability, and a commitment to excellence in work product and team performance. For more information, please visit www.varsityhealthcarepartners.com.

About Regal Healthcare Capital Partners

Regal Healthcare Capital Partners ('Regal') is a New York-based growth equity and buyout firm focused exclusively on lower-middle market healthcare services companies. Regal partners with leading-edge healthcare entrepreneurs in need of financial investment and strategic, operational, and managerial expertise. Regal and its co-founders, David Kim, M.D., and Jon Santemma, bring a unique combination of operational and transactional experience to healthcare services companies to help realize their growth potential. For more information, please visit www.regalhcp.com

Contact Information

Kacie Hackel
National Marketing Manager
kacie.hackel@ecp.net

SOURCE: Emergency Care Partners