IPC Continues Expansion With the Acquisitions of Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists
IPC–The Hospitalist Company has continued its expansion into Florida with the announcement today that it has acquired the medical groups Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists.
01.31.2006
SOUTH FLORIDA – January 31, 2006) — IPC–The Hospitalist Company has continued its expansion into Florida with the announcement today that it has acquired the medical groups Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists. Earlier this month, IPC announced the acquisition of Hospital Care Providers in Ocala, Florida, and also announced expansion into Salt Lake City, Utah, and Detroit, Michigan. The company is now providing hospital-based care in 20 markets nationwide.
Combined, Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists consist of approximately 20 providers seeing about 175 patient visits a day at five area hospitals. The hospitals they serve – and will continue to serve as part of IPC – are Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Southwest Regional Medical Center and Gulf Cost Hospital in Fort Myers, and Naples Community Hospital and North Collier Hospital in Collier County.
“IPC is clearly the leader in the hospitalist industry, and we wanted to be part of a company that is dramatically influencing the way hospital-based care is being delivered around the country,” said Richard Otto, M.D., managing partner of both Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists. “Their private practice model was extremely attractive to us as it is patient focused with a high commitment to quality care.”
In deciding to join IPC, Dr. Otto also praised the company’s commitment to technology in aiding the delivery of care. “IPC knows the importance of its doctors communicating in real time with primary care physicians, specialists and others involved in the care of a patient,” he said. “They have made the commitment to build and continuously improve their communication technology, which allows them to do things other companies simply can’t. There was no sense in trying to build all of this ourselves, and we wouldn’t have joined an organization that didn’t have these progressive programs in place.”
IPC first entered Florida in 2005 with the development of practices in Jacksonville in January and in Tampa a month later. Over the past year, the company has gone from start-up in Florida to more than 130,000 annualized patient visits in the state (nationwide, IPC has more than 1.2 patient visits annually). IPC is currently actively recruiting additional physicians and looking for additional marketplace opportunities both in Florida and nationally to keep up with the present and anticipated future demand for services.
Hospitalists, the nation’s fastest-growing medical specialty, are acute-care specialists who focus on a patient’s hospital care from time of admission to discharge. Increased evidence has shown that hospitalists improve quality of care and reduce healthcare costs while providing patients and their families the added comfort and security of having a physician on site to answer questions and coordinate all of the tests, treatments and services that take place within the hospital.
IPC, the nation’s premier and fastest-growing hospitalist company, currently provides inpatient care in 20 markets nationwide. No other hospitalist company matches its depth of experience and breadth of resources. The company employs approximately 500 physicians who collectively have more than 1.2 million patient visits and manage more than $1 billion in healthcare expenditures annually. These IPC physicians work closely with hospitals, health plans and independent locally based physicians to help drive the healthcare delivery system toward higher-quality, more patient-focused care. In doing so, IPC has been an industry leader and catalyst in the growth of hospitalist medicine.
Information on IPC may be obtained at www.hospitalist.com.
Combined, Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists consist of approximately 20 providers seeing about 175 patient visits a day at five area hospitals. The hospitals they serve – and will continue to serve as part of IPC – are Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Southwest Regional Medical Center and Gulf Cost Hospital in Fort Myers, and Naples Community Hospital and North Collier Hospital in Collier County.
“IPC is clearly the leader in the hospitalist industry, and we wanted to be part of a company that is dramatically influencing the way hospital-based care is being delivered around the country,” said Richard Otto, M.D., managing partner of both Coastal Hospitalists and South Florida Inpatient Medical Specialists. “Their private practice model was extremely attractive to us as it is patient focused with a high commitment to quality care.”
In deciding to join IPC, Dr. Otto also praised the company’s commitment to technology in aiding the delivery of care. “IPC knows the importance of its doctors communicating in real time with primary care physicians, specialists and others involved in the care of a patient,” he said. “They have made the commitment to build and continuously improve their communication technology, which allows them to do things other companies simply can’t. There was no sense in trying to build all of this ourselves, and we wouldn’t have joined an organization that didn’t have these progressive programs in place.”
IPC first entered Florida in 2005 with the development of practices in Jacksonville in January and in Tampa a month later. Over the past year, the company has gone from start-up in Florida to more than 130,000 annualized patient visits in the state (nationwide, IPC has more than 1.2 patient visits annually). IPC is currently actively recruiting additional physicians and looking for additional marketplace opportunities both in Florida and nationally to keep up with the present and anticipated future demand for services.
Hospitalists, the nation’s fastest-growing medical specialty, are acute-care specialists who focus on a patient’s hospital care from time of admission to discharge. Increased evidence has shown that hospitalists improve quality of care and reduce healthcare costs while providing patients and their families the added comfort and security of having a physician on site to answer questions and coordinate all of the tests, treatments and services that take place within the hospital.
IPC, the nation’s premier and fastest-growing hospitalist company, currently provides inpatient care in 20 markets nationwide. No other hospitalist company matches its depth of experience and breadth of resources. The company employs approximately 500 physicians who collectively have more than 1.2 million patient visits and manage more than $1 billion in healthcare expenditures annually. These IPC physicians work closely with hospitals, health plans and independent locally based physicians to help drive the healthcare delivery system toward higher-quality, more patient-focused care. In doing so, IPC has been an industry leader and catalyst in the growth of hospitalist medicine.
Information on IPC may be obtained at www.hospitalist.com.