A Medical Device Daily

Mednax (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) reported the acquisition of Mid-Tennessee Neonatology Associates (Nashville), a physician group practice that manages the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) at hospitals throughout the Nashville metropolitan area.

Mid-Tennessee Neonatology's 10 physicians and 14 neonatal nurse practitioners will practice as part of Mednax's Pediatrix Medical Group operating division, a national group practice of neonatal, maternal fetal, pediatric cardiology and other pediatric subspecialists.

Mid-Tennessee Neonatology Associates staffs seven NICUs, including the Level III Women's Hospital at Centennial and Middle Tennessee Medical Center. In addition, the practice provides hearings screen at a total eight hospitals, including six of the hospitals at which it provides neonatal and well-baby care. Combined patient volume for the practice is in excess of 22,000 annual NICU patient days.

"In Pediatrix we've found a partner that will help us to manage the growth that we anticipate for our practice, and that will allow us to participate in comprehensive clinical quality programs," said M. Sami Ismail, MD, who founded the practice in 1989 and will continue as Pediatrix's medical director. "With Pediatrix's electronic physician note system we'll be able to better compare the quality of our group's patient care with neonatal practices across the country. We'll have the kind of evidence-based tools that will help us to improve care for our babies."

Mid-Tennessee Neonatology is a part of the statewide Tennessee initiative for Perinatal Quality Care, a collaborative effort of neonatal and maternal-fetal medicine practices that is led by Vanderbilt University (Nashville) and is identifying opportunities to improve birth outcomes and deliver evidence-based medicine.

Neonatal and maternal-fetal medicine physicians practicing as part of Pediatrix in Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville are participating in the collaborative, which will be using the Pediatrix QuIPS System (Quality Improvement Project System) to track neonatal and maternal-fetal outcomes for selected projects.

Mid-Tennessee Neonatology was acquired for cash, and the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Mednax's earnings.