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Volume 19 • Issue 1 • $5.00 July 2022

THE REGION’S MONTHLY NEWSPAPER FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & PHYSICIANS
OUR 19TH YEAR SERVING THE HEALTHCARE COMMUNITY!

Ask These Questions Before You Malpractice

Pursue an M&A Transaction

BY ALEXANDER BINELO

M&A remains a key growth strategy in 2022, with more
than one in five healthcare CFOs (22%) planning to pursue
M&A this year, according to the 2022 BDO Healthcare CFO
Outlook Survey. With high valuations and uncertainty
around future market trends, it’s important that healthcare
organizations carefully consider if an M&A deal is the right
move for them, whether they’re on the buy- or sell-side.
When looking at acquisitions made in the last three years,
Jay Juffre more than a third of healthcare CFOs said they either did
not successfully capture available synergies (10%), or syner-
ImageFIRST gies fell short of expectations (24%). Alexander Binelo Tom Murphy
Are you trying to determine if it’s the right time for
M&A? We’ve provided a list of questions related to strategy,
Partners due diligence, integration and operations for both buy- and sell-side healthcare organiza- Going Bare May
tions. You should ensure you can answer all questions relevant to your intentions before
With Clients deciding to go through with a transaction. While this is not a comprehensive list of all Carry More Risks
considerations for pursuing M&A, these questions can be used to help you build a strong
Focus on the Human foundation for any deal you pursue. Than Rewards
For healthcare organizations looking to acquire a company:
Strategy
Experience • Why are you acquiring this company? BY VANESSA ORR
• What are you looking to achieve from the transaction? Have you clearly defined what
success looks like and how you will measure it? In the early 2000s, Florida faced a med-
BY BARBARA R. FALLON ical malpractice crisis when the number
Continued on page 21 of insurance companies writing these
Before, during and after the COVID cri- types of policies fell from roughly 40
sis, ImageFIRST held its ranking as the companies to less than five as the result
largest national linen provider specializing Miami Dade College-Medical of an overwhelming number of claims
in the medical market. They remained a and lawsuits. Many large payments were
leader in infection prevention and efficient Campus: New Central Sterile made, resulting in insurance companies
inventory management, providing com- rapidly increasing premiums, which then
prehensive, quality linen and laundry pro- became unaffordable for some Florida
grams. Processing Technician Program physicians.
That foundation earned ImageFIRST a As a result, many physicians chose to
competitive edge when hurdling COVID- to Meet Workforce Needs, self-insure, or ‘go bare.’
19 challenges. With the marriage of quali- “Florida is one of the few states in the
ty and operational efficiency intact, they Starts Spring 2023 country where physicians are allowed to
enhanced their safety response building on self-insure; basically, they become their
the performance of associates whose cus- own insurance companies, paying for
tomer service attitudes are in sync with BY DR. RON WINSTON everything in the case of a claim or law-
their health care clients’ priorities for suit,” explained Tom Murphy, Sr. Vice
patient care, staff empowerment and cus- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employ- President, National Health Care Practice
tomer satisfaction. ment of Central Sterile Processing Technicians is project- Danna-Gracey, a division of Risk
ed to grow 10.7% from 2016 to 2026, faster than the aver- Strategies.
Enhancing the Human Experience age for all occupations. Advances in medical technology Over the last couple of years, medical
Now they are navigating the ‘post’ have made surgery safer, and more operations are being malpractice rates have increased as a
COVID environment - focusing on done to treat a variety of illnesses and injuries. The result of the Florida Supreme Court over-
enhancing the human experience, accord- demand for central sterile technicians is projected to turning tort reform in 2017, despite the
ing to Jay Juffre, Executive Vice President, grow as the aging of the large baby-boom generation is fact that Florida voters overwhelmingly
as it affects patients, staff, visitors and the expected to increase. According to the Florida voted to place caps on noneconomic
community-at-large. Department of Economic Opportunities, Workforce damages. While not as bad as in 2001-02,
“Patient care will always be about being Development Area 23, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties after 13 years of rate decreases, rates have
great at what you do clinically, but patient will need approximately 1,335 employees in the central Dr. Ron Winston increased for the past two to three years.
experience is all about how you do it. sterile technician field per year between 2018 and 2026. “The fact that the Florida Supreme
Perceptions of patients, staff, and visitors To meet this demand, Miami Dade College, a leader in addressing the workforce Court declared tort reform unconstitu-
go a long way in shaping our reality,” he needs of the community is dedicated to preparing students for the ever-changing tional opened the floodgates for more
said. field of health sciences. lawsuits and nuclear verdicts, which has
While hospital personnel often think Miami Dade College, School of Health Sciences developed a 650-hour Florida resulted in insurance companies paying
Continued on page 21 Continued on page 10 Continued on page 12