AmSurg Corporation

AmSurg Corp, headquartered in Nashville, specializes in practice-based ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). These  are licensed outpatient surgery centers generally equipped and staffed for a single medical specialty and are typically located in or adjacent to a physician group practice.

AmSurg was founded in 1992 and went public in Decemeber, 1997.

The types of procedures performed at the companys' centers depend on the specialty of the practicing physicians. They target ownership in centers that perform gastrointestinal endoscopy, ophthalmology, orthopedics and otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) procedures.

The medical specialties are selected because they generally involve a high volume of lower-risk procedures that can be performed in an outpatient setting on a safe and cost-effective basis. The procedures most commonly performed within each specialty are:

The centers are operated as a partnership between the physician partners and AmSurg. While physician partners concentrate on providing patient care, AmSurg oversees the clinical services, business office, marketing, financial reporting, accreditation and administrative operations of the surgery centers. Each surgery center partnership is governed by an operating board, which is comprised of equal representation by AmSurg and the physician partners. The company regularly conducts strategic planning sessions with their physician partners to identify new opportunities and prioritize goals for each individual center with the shared objective of achieving market dominance and operating excellence on the local level. At June 30, 2008, AmSurg owned a majority interest in 176 continuing centers in operation and had three centers under development.