Christus enters 'joint venture' with private equity-backed staffing firm

May 7—The Texas organization that owns Santa Fe's Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center has entered into a new pact with a Georgia-based private equity-backed staffing firm, a hospital spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

Christus Health and Atlanta-based SCP Health are creating a new "clinical company" called CS Partners, which hospital spokesman Arturo Delgado described in an email Tuesday as an "in-sourced inpatient group."

Hospital leaders did not respond directly to a request for an interview about the new company on Tuesday.

In a provided statement, Delgado said the new company will be equally governed by Christus Health — the group that owns the New Mexico hospital and clinics — and SCP Health.

"This new organization benefits from SCP's infrastructure and data-rich clinical expertise in hospital-based medicine as well as the trusted, compassionate and high-quality care provided by CHRISTUS Health," the release said. "Building on the decades of experience and dedicated service of both organizations, this joint venture aspires to build a novel and industry-leading way of connecting and supporting clinicians while creating a new and powerful cross-ministry and cross-service line collaboration aimed at improving the quality and consistency of care for our patients.

Delgado did not answer questions about the specifics of how the partnership will work or which parts of the hospital's services would be affected. He wrote in an email to The New Mexican that while the hospital has had initial discussions with some physicians, he could not answer questions about a timeline for any forthcoming changes.

"Out of respect for our providers, and the importance of initial discussions, it is premature to share anything that would suggest that a plan or timeline have been determined," he wrote.

SCP Health, based in Atlanta and headed by CEO Rich D'Amaro, was founded by Dr. William "Kip" Schumacher, an emergency medicine physician who still serves as the organization's executive chairman. The company, formerly known as Schumacher Clinical Partners, offers outsourced staffing services. Various media outlets recently reported the firm taking over employment of hospitalist employees for a Catholic health system that operates 10 hospitals in the Chicago area.

The new partnership in New Mexico comes on the heels of Christus St. Vincent outsourcing employment of its Women's Care Specialists practitioners to South Carolina-based Ob Hospitalist Group, another private equity-backed company. Both developments also come after a shift in the hospital's ownership mix. Until last year, local nonprofit Anchorum St. Vincent owned half of Christus St. Vincent, which includes the hospital as well as all the other local Christus entities. In the fall, that nonprofit transferred its shares to Texas-based Christus Health.

Hospital president and CEO Lillian Montoya said in a provided statement that "were there to be any changes" as a result of the newly created CS Partners, the hospital would communicate those directly to its staff.

"As we learn more about the joint venture strategy, including any possible implementation, we remain committed to providing high quality care and a great patient experience," Montoya wrote. "Any changes would need to be complementary to our local mission, inclusive of the feedback from our providers, and position CHRISTUS St. Vincent to successfully navigate the headwinds in healthcare."

A Christus Health spokeswoman wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon that information provided by Delgado is "all that we are releasing at the moment." Efforts to reach SCP Health representatives on Tuesday were not successful.