USACS NEWS
USACS shares news and information that keep you informed and demonstrate our commitment to efficiency and improved patient care and outcomes. A USACS representative is available for media inquiries.
General News
Jan 26, 2016
US Acute Care Solutions Welcomes George Mitri to Its Integrated Acute Care Division
CANTON, OHIO –Continuing its development of a world-class leadership team,US Acute Care Solutions (USACS),a national leader in integrated acute care of emergency and hospital medicine services,today announced the hiring of Dr. George Mitri as chief medical officer of USACS Integrated Acute Care Division. Dr. Mitri will work with the USACS leadership team to develop and implement high-quality, lean clinical physician services that begin with patients in the emergency department and transition patients through their hospital stay and into post-acute settings. “Dr. Mitri is an exceptional clinician and physician leader, and is a respected member of the hospital medicine community,” said Dr. Tim Corvino,president, USACSIntegrated Acute Care Division. “He is a talented, cultural fit within the USACS leadership team, and is ultimately responsible for providing better value to patients, hospitals and payers. He will drivetheprovision of high-quality patient care while also improving every step of the patient experience.” Most recently, Dr. Mitri served as vice president of care coordination and hospital medicine, for Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio.With808licensed beds, 575 active physicians in more than 40 different medical specialties and a staff of more than 5,000 employees, Aultman offers high-quality healthcare services and works to positively impact the Canton, Ohio, community.Dr. Mitri also served as medical director for AultCare Corporation, Utilization Management and ProviderRelations. Dr. Mitri’s approach to care and his service mirrors USACS mission to provide resources and support to today’s physician groups through a democratic market alternative. He has successfully deployed readmission reduction programs through innovative high-risk care coordination, and transition of care optimization. Through his programming and oversight, Dr. Mitri generated positive shared savings through CMS bundled payment initiatives. “Joining USACS is a meaningful next step for my career in that I’m part of an organization driving the disruption and thought-leadership of physician ownership,” said Dr. George Mitri, incoming chief medical officer, USACS Integrated Acute Care Division. “This role also addresses two key areas of interest for me – patient care and improving outcomes through quality-focused programming. I’m eager to work with USACS leadership team and the regional governance teams to find solutions specific to their areas.” USACS is one of the largest majority physician-owned practices in the country, with more than 900 doctors and 400 advanced practice providers. Dr. Mitri joins the USACS team effective immediately. About U.S. Acute Care Solutions Established in May 2015, USACS is focused on becoming the national leader in integrated acute care of emergency and hospital medicine services. USACS offers medicine groups a strategic partnership by providing business support, industry resources and capital backing. USACS provides high-quality emergency and hospital care to nearly 4 million patients each year at more than 90 hospitals in 20 states, and is aligned with leading hospital systems across the country. USACS has aggressively expanded its national footprint with co-founders TBEP (Tampa, Fla.), MEP Health (Germantown, Md.), EPPH (Denver, Colo.), and WCAS (N.Y.), fortifying shared core values, attention to high-quality patient care, and ethical business practices.
General News
Dec 14, 2015
Dr. Geary Named Acute Care Medical Director at Somerset Hospital
Dr. Daniel Gearyis the Acute Care Medical Director at Somerset Hospital in Somerset, PA. In this role, Dr. Geary serves as the Acute Care Team Leader for both the hospitalist and emergency medicine. Dr. Geary has been with AHN-EMM since the beginning of the joint venture and previously served as Medical Director at Allegheny Valley Hospital and as staff physician at Forbes Hospital. Dr. Geary received his medical degree from the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA, and completed his emergency medicine residency at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA, where he served as Chief Resident. Dr. Geary is board certifed in emergency medicine and a Fellow in the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Press Release
Oct 27, 2015
US Acute Care Solutions Announces Partnership with Denver Emergency Medicine Practice EPPH
US Acute Care Solutions (“USACS”), a national leader in emergency medicine and hospitalist services,today announced a partnership with Emergency Physicians at Porter Hospitals, P.C. (“EPPH”), a Denver-based emergency physician practice that staffs facilities for Centura Health, the region’s healthcare leader. “We are thrilled to have EPPH join EMP as co-founders of U.S. Acute Care Solutions. They are a highly regarded practice with exceptional quality and a strong partnership mentality, and we look forward to working together as partners to build and grow our company,” said Dr. Dominic Bagnoli, CEO of USACS. “We also believe that EPPH joining USACS is a great indication of the growing interest in our new model, which combines majority physician ownership with outstanding nationwide clinical and operating capabilities.” “As a democratic physician group, EPPH is excited to join the unique platform that USACS is building,” said Dr. Mark Prather from EPPH. “It was critical for us to become part of an organization where we would continue to be owners, to provide excellent patient-centered care and to be closely aligned with our hospital partners.” As a USACS co-founder, EPPH physicians will all become shareholders of USACS and remain highly involved in the governance and clinical leadership of their practice. Said Dr. Prather: “We are not just employees, we are owners. That has always made a big difference in both culture and performance. No one else in the market is doing this.” EMP and capital partner, Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe, created USACS, a physician-led company and market alternative where practices and hospital systems can partner to build both their businesses and a national platform with the resources, business support and capital of a substantial enterprise. The USACS and EPPH partnership agreement, which has been approved by the shareholders of EPPH, is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by year-end. Ropes Gray LLP served as legal counsel to USACS. Quadriga Partners is acting as the financial advisor to EPPH, and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP is serving as its legal counsel. About USACS Established in May 2015 by Emergency Medicine Physicians and Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe, USACS is focused on becoming the national leader in emergency, hospitalist and observational medicine. USACS offers emergency medicine and hospitalist practices a strategic partnership as well as the clinical resources, business support infrastructure and capital backing required to be successful. USACS’ 900 physicians and 300 advanced practice providers deliver high quality emergency care to over 2.7 million patients each year at more than 70 hospitals in leading healthcare systems across the country. About EPPH Formed in 1987, EPPH is a leading provider of outsourced emergency medicine services in Denver, Colorado. EPPH serves as the exclusive provider for five facilities in the Centura Health system. One of the largest physician groups in the region, EPPH treats more than 100,000 adult and pediatric patients. About Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe focuses its investment activity in two target industries: healthcare and information/business services. Since its founding in 1979, the firm has organized 16 limited partnerships with total capital of $23 billion. The firm is currently investing Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe XII, L.P. Seewww.welshcarson.comto learn more.
Press Release
Oct 19, 2015
Emergency Medicine Physicians and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe Announce Formation of US Acute Care Solutions
Unique partnership provides a new model for a national physician-led emergency medicine and hospitalist provider Emergency Medicine Physicians (“EMP”),one of the nation’s largest emergency medicine providers, and Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe (“WCAS”), a leading healthcare investment firm, today announced the establishment ofUS Acute Care Solutions (“USACS”). USACS will be majority-owned by physicians and is focused on building a national leader in emergency medicine and hospitalist services. EMP’s Medical Group and practice management operations will become the foundation for USACS. “The creation of US Acute Care Solutions puts physician ownership front and center in a unique partnership with strong operational capabilities and an experienced capital partner in WCAS,” said Dominic Bagnoli, MD, chief executive officer, EMP and USACS. “This new company provides us with a great opportunity to grow our practice and strengthen our values of high quality patient care and physician ownership. Our new partner, WCAS, embraces those values, and has a proven track record of partnering with physicians and major integrated delivery systems to build market leaders, like they’ve done with US Anesthesia Partners, United Surgical Partners, US Oncology and many others.” Founded in 1992, EMP is one of the largest physician-owned emergency medicine practices in the country, with more than 800 doctors and 300 advanced practice providers. EMP provides high quality emergency care to over 2.7 million patients each year at 64 hospitals in 15 states, and is aligned with leading hospital systems across the country. Its innovativePhysicianFirstemergency room management system demonstrably shortens “door to doctor” times, reduces left without being seen rates and improves patient satisfaction. EMP also supports its clinicians with meaningful continuing education and training, like itsPatient Satisfaction Academy, and develops its next generation of physician leaders with itsScholarsprogram. “EMP really fits all of our criteria for a partner,” said Brian Regan, General Partner, Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe. “Their providers consistently deliver great care in emergency departments across the country, and their doctors are highly engaged as partners and owners. They’re innovators and have reinvested in their profession and their business. Historically, independent emergency medicine groups had only two strategic alternatives: sell their practice or face a challenging healthcare environment alone. USACS will offer practices and hospital systems a third option, which is to partner with a company led by physicians but with the resources, business support and capital of a substantial enterprise.” “Patient-centered care is the foundation of our culture and therefore our business,” said Peter Hudson, MD, Board Chairman of EMP and US Acute Care Solutions. “It’s not only good for the practice and patients, it’s foundational to our specialty, and why emergency physicians have such a strong belief in service and physician ownership. US Acute Care Solutions ensures this culture will flourish, and like-minded approaches of caring for patients will continue to have a viable practice option in the marketplace.” The partnership agreement, which was approved by EMP’s Board of Directors and shareholders, is expected to close in second quarter of this year. Ulmer Berne LLP is serving as legal counsel to EMP. Ropes Gray LLP and Alston Bird LLP are serving as legal counsel to WCAS. Emergency Medicine Physicians (EMPHoldings Ltd.), Established in 1992, Emergency Medicine Physicians is one of the leading providers of emergency medical services in the nation. EMP was founded by practicing emergency medicine physicians, who had a vision for creating a better way to deliver emergency medicine care with physicians as owners. The group has achieved this vision by focusing on core values that create a culture where patients, physicians and hospital partners thrive. About Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe Welsh, Carson, Anderson Stowe focuses its investment activity in two target industries: healthcare and information/business services. Since its founding in 1979, the Firm has organized 16 limited partnerships with total capital of over $21 billion. WCAS has invested $7 billion in 79 healthcare companies, including many leading healthcare providers. WCAS's strategy is to partner with outstanding management teams and build value for the Firm's investors through a combination of operational improvements, internal growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. Seewww.welshcarson.comto learn more.
Press Release
Sep 17, 2013
Dr. Carson featured in Contra Costa Times
By Robert Rogers Contra Costa Times Article Featured On Contra Costa Times “SAN PABLO — Minutes after the crackling gunfire and screeching rubber, the fallout hits Dr. Desmond Carson. As an emergency room physician, Carson has seen hundreds of young men, women and children wheeled in with bullet-riddled bodies. He can’t unsee the dead, the last breaths and the miraculous recoveries. Nor does he want to. ‘You get tired of seeing black boys and Mexican boys killed, it’s depressing, but it also is right there, a truth you can’t hide or gloss over,’ Carson said. ‘It’s a public health disgrace. If this kind of carnage happened in a white community, there would be a national uproar.’ Carson, 52, has been saving lives in the Doctors Medical Center emergency room since 1998. Dr. Desmond Carson and medical student Pam Schwendy discuss treatments for a patient in the emergency department of Doctors Medical Center. Carson, 52, named a Hometown Hero, has been saving lives in the Doctors Medical Center emergency room since 1998 and been a fierce advocate for his chronically underfunded hospital and public health in West Contra Costa County. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) and is a fierce advocate for his chronically underfunded hospital and public health in West Contra Costa County. In April, Carson earned the Richmond Excellence Serving our Community award, granted by Richmond and the Richmond Community Foundation. The award committee noted Carson’s cofounding of a team of health care professionals to provide free stroke and heart attack-prevention clinics, mentoring Richmond High School students interested in medicine, and coaching the Richmond Steelers, a pee-wee football team. ‘Desmond is a guy with a sterling educational background who could work anywhere in the country,’ said Eric Zell, who served five years with Carson on the hospital’s board of directors. ‘But he chooses to work at a safety-net hospital that serves low-income and uninsured or underinsured people. You don’t see a lot of people do that.’ Carson grew up in south Richmond, just off Carlson Boulevard near what is now the Crescent Park housing complex. Eastshore Park, since renamed Booker T. Anderson Park, was where he played after-school sports. Carson and his two younger sisters went to St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Berkeley and later to El Cerrito High School. Dad worked at a packaging company in Berkeley, and Mom was a nurse at Kaiser Hospital in Richmond. Carson went to UC Berkeley, where he studied biophysics, and later studied medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. It was during his residency at Martin Luther King Jr. medical center in Los Angeles that Carson saw firsthand the toll of grinding inner-city violence. In the 1980s and 1990s, the crack cocaine epidemic gripped the Los Angeles area, and gang violence was on the rise. Carson remembers the September 1996 night that rap star Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas. The MLK medical center looked like a war zone, he said. ‘We had 18 people shot that night, in the head, the chest, the stomach, arms and legs,’ Carson said. ‘That was the most I’ve ever seen. It seemed like I was performing surgery on trauma victims all night.’ Today, Carson is that rare physician who is totally in sync with the community he serves, trusted by generations of patients and possessing an empathy and understanding befitting his local background. ‘He knows everybody, and everybody knows him, I have never seen anything quite like it,’ said Dr. Malcolm Johnson, the emergency department medical director. ‘In this community, the ER doctor is also a de facto primary care doctor, and Desmond plays that role as well as it can be done.’ Johnson said Carson, whom he describes as a ‘mentor,’ is at his best in times of crisis. When a massive fire broke out at the nearby Chevron refinery in August, Carson, a veteran of many other chemical spills and industrial explosions in West Contra Costa County, took command. ‘I recall him saying to everybody, “Get the tents out!”‘ Johnson said, referring to emergency triage tents to handle the imminent surge of patients. More than 15,000 people sought medical treatment in the hours and days after the fire, several thousand at Doctors Medical Center. ‘That was the impetus, and when the patient surge came, we were ready, and Desmond performed marvelously,’ Johnson said. Carson, who lives in the city where he grew up, said he isn’t immune to the emotions that come with working in an emergency room. ‘It’s tough,’ Carson said. ‘I lean on my wife and my kids for support, and I have no problem getting on my knees and asking God’s help.’ Carson said that whatever emotional toll the bloodshed has on him, it pales in comparison with what young people in the community face. ‘These kids out here in Richmond and North Richmond see this violence every day, and there aren’t any psychologists running around these communities to treat these kids for post-traumatic stress disorder,’ he said. ‘You can’t see the scars on someone’s soul, but they are there.’ Looking ahead, Carson expects to transition away from the emergency room and spend more time doing public health outreach, volunteering with the Richmond Steelers football program and advancing public health initiatives as a director of For Richmond, a coalition of business and labor leaders dedicated to improving Richmond. ‘There’s always this fear of being the old guy on the basketball court who can’t play anymore, and somebody else has to tell him it’s time to move,’ Carson said. ‘I don’t want to be that old guy trying to run with these youngsters on the ER floor.”