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CENSUS
Goldman Sachs wants to back former Quorum Health Group CEO Jim Dalton for a new hospital company. The investment bank is waving up to $100 million in his direction. Dalton stepped down from the Triad board in April of 2003. The HCA alum built a good relationship with Goldman Sachs during his stint at Quorum. The investment bank was the hospital company’s lead banker on multiple deals. Also, Dalton remains close to Russ Carson. Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe was majority shareholder of Quorum.

Former PhyCor executives Tom Dent and Tarp Jones are on the move. Dent is working with an investment banker to launch a new venture, while Jones is out at the helm of Aveta and is assisting on a part time basis in the rehabilitation of HealthSouth. Recall, Jones emerged as the leader of PhyCor’s successor, an IPA named Aveta Health.
Calls to Aveta’s Burton Hills office were routed to Hackensack, N.J.-based investment firm, Care Ventures LLC. Care Ventures recently sealed $34.4 million from G.E. Healthcare Financial Services to buy four skilled nursing homes in Virginia.

Cambio’s Kathy Fickes is leaving her post as CEO of Carraway Medical Center in Birmingham. A deal to sell Carraway’s three hospitals to Ardent fell apart in 2002 and LifePoint walked away with two rural facilities. Carraway’s urban flagship facility continues to struggle. Not only is Fickes leaving, but the facility is also working to refinance its $102.2 million in debt.

INFUSION THERAPY
As it awaits final word from the SBIC on whether the government organization will match the $27 million it raised for FCA III, Clayton Associates has made two recent investments. One in Bob Yeager and Richard Gore’s hospital startup Attentus Health and the other in a Vanderbilt-affiliated startup. That company is using nanotechnology for the development of stents.

Meanwhile, the Discovery Life Sciences Fund, a four-way venture between Clayton Associates, Vanderbilt, MDS Inc. and MDS Capital, is scouting the Nashville market for deals. Leading the charge is Boston-based Tony Natale, an executive with MDS. None of the $1.2 million raised has been invested. The group still plans on raising a larger fund in the near future.

Franklin-based Coleman Swenson Booth has exited a handful of its investments in the last few months with the sale of Medisphere to Symbion, CHD Meridian to I-Trax Inc. Word on the street is that the group toying with the idea of raising another fund and going at it again.

LABOR AND DELIVERY
Meanwhile, there are rumblings of a new psychiatric hospital company under formation. David Fassler, a Burington, VT psychiatrist is leading the charge. Well known in behavioral health circles because of his work with the National Mental Health Association, the APA Council on Children, Fassler is rumored to be eyeing one of Ken Parry's Oregon Hospitality.

Psychiatric Solutions board member and former PMR Corp. CEO Mark Clein raked in $153 million for a new company and an investment fund in the Washington, D.C. area. Rapidly growing PSI acquired Clein’s former employer in 2002. That deal marked PSI’s foray into the capital markets.

For his latest venture, Clein, a former health care investment banker for Jeffries Inc. and Merrill Lynch, rejoined Ethan Leder. The pair struck gold in 2002 when they sold their distributor of specialty pharmaceuticals, U.S. Bioservices, to Amerisource Bergen Corp. for roughly $160 million. That deal cleared a mere 18 months after their start. Its initial capitalization, by the way, was $60 million.

Clein and Leder have formed a new company, United BioSource, as well as an investment fund. The pair is looking to acquire companies that provide science, evidence-based services and information to the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries.

They share a common investor with PSI: Connecticut-based Oak Investment Partners. Oak’s Ann Lamont serves on both boards. Other investors include GroTech and Whitney & Co.

FOR SALE
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Youth and Family Centered Services is on the block. Two private equity firms are in the running to buy the company. Word on the street is that Chicago-based buyout firm GTCR will emerge as the buyer.

Phoenixville Hospital, Pennsylvania, will likely go to Community Health Systems since Howard Peterson was picked as the seller’s consultant. Peterson is the same M&A consultant who sold CHS two of their Pennsylvania facilities. Whoever buys the hospital will likely have to build a replacement facility.

Tenet dropped a wad of 30 hospitals on the market. Since only those with psychiatric issues would go to California and no one will buy them as a whole. It’s likely that the facilities will be sold piecemeal. The $600 million price tag has struck many in the industry as exaggerated given their massive reconstruction, if not rebuilding needs in southern California. Don’t forget Iasis might be on the market as well and, Province continues to post a sluggish, low teens stock price, making it a takeover target. Bottom line: Tenet is shooting for a seller’s price is what is coming to be a buyer’s market.





				CENSUS Goldman Sachs wants to back former Quorum Health Group CEO Jim Dalton for a new hospital company. The investment bank is waving up to $100 million in his direction. Dalton stepped down from the Triad board in April of 2003. The HCA alum built a good relationship with Goldman Sachs during his stint at Quorum. The investment bank was the hospital company’s lead banker on multiple deals. Also, Dalton remains close to Russ Carson. Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe was majority shareholder of Quorum. Former PhyCor executives Tom Dent and Tarp Jones are on the move. Dent is working with an investment banker to launch a new venture, while Jones is out at the helm of Aveta and is assisting on a part time basis in the rehabilitation of HealthSouth. Recall, Jones emerged as the leader of PhyCor’s successor, an IPA named Aveta Health. Calls to Aveta’s Burton Hills office were routed to Hackensack, N.J.-based investment firm, Care Ventures LLC. Care Ventures recently sealed $34.4 million from G.E. Healthcare Financial Services to buy four skilled nursing homes in Virginia. Cambio’s Kathy Fickes is leaving her post as CEO of Carraway Medical Center in Birmingham. A deal to sell Carraway’s three hospitals to Ardent fell apart in 2002 and LifePoint walked away with two rural facilities. Carraway’s urban flagship facility continues to struggle. Not only is Fickes leaving, but the facility is also working to refinance its $102.2 million in debt.

				INFUSION THERAPY As it awaits final word from the SBIC on whether the government organization will match the $27 million it raised for FCA III, Clayton Associates has made two recent investments. One in Bob Yeager and Richard Gore’s hospital startup Attentus Health and the other in a Vanderbilt-affiliated startup. That company is using nanotechnology for the development of stents. Meanwhile, the Discovery Life Sciences Fund, a four-way venture between Clayton Associates, Vanderbilt, MDS Inc. and MDS Capital, is scouting the Nashville market for deals. Leading the charge is Boston-based Tony Natale, an executive with MDS. None of the $1.2 million raised has been invested. The group still plans on raising a larger fund in the near future. Franklin-based Coleman Swenson Booth has exited a handful of its investments in the last few months with the sale of Medisphere to Symbion, CHD Meridian to I-Trax Inc. Word on the street is that the group toying with the idea of raising another fund and going at it again.

				LABOR AND DELIVERY Meanwhile, there are rumblings of a new psychiatric hospital company under formation. David Fassler, a Burington, VT psychiatrist is leading the charge. Well known in behavioral health circles because of his work with the National Mental Health Association, the APA Council on Children, Fassler is rumored to be eyeing one of Ken Parry's Oregon Hospitality. Psychiatric Solutions board member and former PMR Corp. CEO Mark Clein raked in $153 million for a new company and an investment fund in the Washington, D.C. area. Rapidly growing PSI acquired Clein’s former employer in 2002. That deal marked PSI’s foray into the capital markets. For his latest venture, Clein, a former health care investment banker for Jeffries Inc. and Merrill Lynch, rejoined Ethan Leder. The pair struck gold in 2002 when they sold their distributor of specialty pharmaceuticals, U.S. Bioservices, to Amerisource Bergen Corp. for roughly $160 million. That deal cleared a mere 18 months after their start. Its initial capitalization, by the way, was $60 million. Clein and Leder have formed a new company, United BioSource, as well as an investment fund. The pair is looking to acquire companies that provide science, evidence-based services and information to the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries. They share a common investor with PSI: Connecticut-based Oak Investment Partners. Oak’s Ann Lamont serves on both boards. Other investors include GroTech and Whitney & Co.

				FOR SALE Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Youth and Family Centered Services is on the block. Two private equity firms are in the running to buy the company. Word on the street is that Chicago-based buyout firm GTCR will emerge as the buyer. Phoenixville Hospital, Pennsylvania, will likely go to Community Health Systems since Howard Peterson was picked as the seller’s consultant. Peterson is the same M&A consultant who sold CHS two of their Pennsylvania facilities. Whoever buys the hospital will likely have to build a replacement facility. Tenet dropped a wad of 30 hospitals on the market. Since only those with psychiatric issues would go to California and no one will buy them as a whole. It’s likely that the facilities will be sold piecemeal. The $600 million price tag has struck many in the industry as exaggerated given their massive reconstruction, if not rebuilding needs in southern California. Don’t forget Iasis might be on the market as well and, Province continues to post a sluggish, low teens stock price, making it a takeover target. Bottom line: Tenet is shooting for a seller’s price is what is coming to be a buyer’s market.