Vantage Oncology Inc. announced that it has completed seven new partnerships involving 10 cancer treatment facilities around the country, and secured a $100 million credit facility that will support the company’s growth.
Manhattan Beach-based Vantage, backed by five venture or private equity firms, now operates 31 high-tech radiation treatment centers in 11 states. Chief Executive Michael Fiore said that should grow to 40 by the end of the year.
One of the latest facilities is Glendale Radiation Oncology in Glendale, a new center opened in partnership with Valley Radiotherapy Associates. It becomes the company’s fourth facility in the San Fernando Valley. Locally, Vantage also has four centers in the Riverside-San Bernardino area.
“What makes us attractive is that we have a partnership model with hospitals and radiation oncologists, and our focus on offering the latest technology,” said Fiore, who co-founded the company in 2002. Vantage does not release financials, but Fiore said revenues have doubled in the last 12 months.
The credit facility was provided by Los Angeles-based Ares Capital Corp. on what Fiore called “very favorable” terms given the economic climate. “I think that’s because we’re a company that’s done well and we’re in a sector, health care services, that’s still attractive.”
Vantage’s financial backers are New Enterprise Associates, CCP Equity Partners, Versant Ventures, Salix Ventures and Camden Partners.
Kaiser Gets Kiosks
Kaiser Permanente is hoping that new fast-appointment kiosks, similar to self-service check-in machines now common at airports, will soon speed the flow of doctor’s office visits during peak times at its Southern California operations.
Kaiser’s Rancho Cucamonga Medical Office Building, an earlier test site for the project, was the first to get the unique kiosks earlier this summer. The South Bay medical office building in Harbor City is slated to get them in a few weeks.
Larry Sharfstein, who heads business consulting and implementation services for Kaiser Southern California, expects to have 100 multi-lingual kiosks, which cost around $10,000, in place around the Southland by the end of the year.
The kiosks, which enable patients to check in and make co-pays for most appointments using their membership card and an ATM or credit card, are the next step in Kaiser’s HealthConnect information technology upgrade to increase efficiency and reduce paperwork.
Patients already can access test results, make basic appointments and refill prescriptions from a secure Web page at home. Kaiser has largely switched from paper to digital medical records at its doctors offices, with authorized doctors and nurses able check a patient’s history and order tests and prescriptions from terminals in each examination room.
Kaiser won’t be getting rid of receptionists, Sharfstein said, just enabling its more tech-savvy members to spend less time in line, and free up staff to spend more time with more complex patient questions. If one in five people use the system, it will be worth the investment, he said.
Signalife Acquisition
Studio City-based heart-monitoring device maker Signalife Inc. said its board has approved a merger with Heart One Global Research, an Irish heart and clinical information management company.
A new parent company is expected to be formed in which each company will operate as a separate, wholly-owned subsidiary managed by their respective management teams. Signalife shareholders will receive 94 percent of the new company’s common stock, with Heart One shareholders receiving 6 percent and the right to earn an additional 9 percent if certain growth goals are met.
While Signalife’s stock trades on the American Stock Exchange, the company has been on the brink of being delisted for several months as its stock price dwindled to 29 cents. The company reported a $3.1 million net loss for the quarter ended March 31, with an accumulated deficit of $51.8 million.
Prime Leasebacks
The Alabama-based real estate investment trust that has enabled Prime Healthcare Services Inc. to become one of Southern California’s largest hospital operators has taken over Prime’s three latest Los Angeles County acquisitions under the partners’ usual lease-back arrangement.
Medical Properties Trust Inc., based in Birmingham, said July 8 that it entered into a $60 million financing arrangement with affiliates of Prime Healthcare related to the three hospital campuses that Prime acquired from Tenet Healthcare Corp. These hospitals are the 151-bed Encino campus of the Encino-Tarzana Medical Center, the 167-bed Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center and the 93-bed San Dimas Community Hospital. As it has done elsewhere, Prime will lease back and manage the hospitals it has sold to Medical Properties.
Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232.
