Eagle Hospital Physicians Acquired by Equity Firms

Eagle Hospital Physicians, an Atlanta-based practice management company, has been acquired by private equity firms Highlander Partners, LP, and Flexpoint Ford, with equity fund Health Enterprise Partners, LP, the companies have announced in a joint statement.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Eagle, which provides hospitalist contract services, telemedicine, and hospitalist temporary staffing to hospitals in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, named Brent McCarty as its chairman/CEO. McCarty was president/COO of revenue management specialists Alpharetta, GA-based Accuro Healthcare Solutions, Inc.

"Eagle has a great history of providing powerful hospital solutions by developing and managing hospitalist programs," McCarty said. "Moving forward, we're uniquely positioned to help our hospital partners meet their inpatient physician service needs. We will be making focused investments in people, process and technology, including improving and developing quality measurement systems and focusing on telemedicine and other specialty lines of business."

Robert Young, MD, founder/CEO of Eagle since 1998, will serve on Eagle's board. Mac McCormick, MD, senior medical director with Eagle since 2003, was named COO.

"Over the past decade, Eagle Hospital Physicians has gained recognition as one of the top hospitalist companies in the Southeast, providing inpatient solutions tailored to client hospital size, location and needs," Young said. "I am excited to partner with Brent McCarty as well as Highlander Partners and Flexpoint Ford to capitalize on the strategic opportunity to continue building Eagle."

Highlander Partners, based in Dallas, and Flexpoint Ford, with offices in Chicago and New York, specialize in private equity investments in middle-market companies in the healthcare and financial services industries. Health Enterprise Partners is a growth equity fund specializing in healthcare services and healthcare IT companies. HEP's investors include 16 of the nation's largest hospital systems and health plans.