As one of the largest private joint venture surgery center operators, Regent Surgical Health manages a portfolio of 23 ASCs, 18 hospital joint ventures and nine total joint replacement centers in the U.S. and Europe.
Here are 10 things to know.
1. W. Michael Karnes and Thomas Mallon founded Regent in 2001. Regent treated 675,000 patients by the end of 2017, working toward its goal of treating 1 million patients by 2021.
2. Chris Bishop became CEO in 2016, succeeding Mr. Mallon, who remains board chairman. Mr. Bishop previously served as Regent's president. Prior to joining Regent, he served in leadership roles including partner and senior vice president at Nashville, Tenn.-based Blue Chip Surgery Center Partners and vice president of acquisitions and business development of Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America.
3. Regent currently has 23 ASCs, three of which opened in 2017: Mt. Pleasant (Mich.) Surgery Center, The Surgery Center of Wasilla (Ala.), and East Hills (N.Y.) Surgery Center, a partnership with Roslyn, N.Y.-based St. Francis Hospital of Catholic Health Services of Long Island and 34 physician partners.
4. Headquartered in Westchester, Ill., Regent has two facilities in Ireland and one in Roatan, Honduras.
5. Regent launched a bundled payment strategy in 2017, working with physicians’ groups in Nevada and Oregon to syndicate its first two bundled payment entities.
6. Case volumes were down in 2017, which Regent attributed to debate over Obamacare repeal and the growth of high-deductible insurance plans. There was volume constriction of 2 to 3 percent, down from the historical 2 to 4 percent surgical volume growth.
"Due to uncertainty in the healthcare market, this year’s industrywide case volumes were very challenged," Mr. Bishop said. "The good news is, our growth strategy worked, and Regent will far exceed the industry average.”
7. The number of total joint replacement procedures performed in Regent's ASCs in 2017 was nearly double the number performed in 2016. Regent expects that number to increase again in 2018.
8. Regent made numerous leadership changes in fall 2017. In November, Thomas Crossen was named chief development officer, and Jay Colehour assumed responsibility for growing Regent's health system and ASC joint ventures portfolio as vice president of business development. Bob Ryan, who joined Regent in 2016, was named COO in October 2017.
9. Director of Spine Services James Lynch, MD, launched Regent's program to help physicians develop spine-focused centers. He is president, founder and CEO of Reno-based SpineNevada, as well as chairman and director of spine at the Surgical Center of Reno.
10. Regent transitioned to an employee stock ownership plan in December 2016.
"The owners and investors of Regent considered various strategic financial alternatives as we evaluated the proper ownership transition of the business including the sale of the company to a strategic or financial buyer. We ultimately chose to sell the business to the employees — our true partners — so they can directly participate as owners in the future financial benefits of executing our successful business model," Mr. Mallon said at the time.