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Press Ganey, best known in the healthcare industry for its patient satisfaction surveys, is being acquired by Swedish private equity company EQT for $2.35 billion. This is EQT’s first direct investment in North America via its EQT Equity arm.
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The deal will privatize South Bend, Indiana-based Press Ganey just 16 months after it had gone public. EQT’s payment of $40.50 in cash per share 62 percent higher than the initial public offering price.
If a statement from Press Ganey CEO is any indication, this sale will allow the company to continue to grow. “We are very excited about this transaction as it delivers value for our shareholders and allows Press Ganey to accelerate our investment in both acquisitions and product innovation that best serve our clients,” CEO Patrick Ryan said in a press release.
The two companies said the sale was likely to close in the fourth quarter. A Press Ganey spokeswoman declined to comment beyond what was in the press release.
Though commonly known for surveys measuring patient satisfaction, Press Ganey has diversified in recent years.
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Notably, last September, the company acquired patient safety consulting firm Healthcare Performance Improvement. In January 2013, it bought Morehead Associates, which specialized in employee and physician engagement.
Also in 2013, Press Ganey hired Dr. Thomas Lee as chief medical officer. Lee had been CEO of what’s now known as Partners Community Physicians Organization, the physician network of Partners HealthCare in Boston. He now also serves as chairman of the board of Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System.
In an email interview with MedCity News in April, Lee discussed the intersection of patient safety, quality of care and physician satisfaction:
Increasingly, healthcare providers are recognizing that these all come together culturally. You need a culture where care givers work together, and work hard as individuals to deliver care the way we all want it to be – safe, technically excellent and empathetic. There are these basic themes of reliability and improvement that cut across all these dimensions of quality. We have to be consistent in doing what we are supposed to do. And we have to be constantly trying to get better. These are cultural values, and they tie to all aspects of performance – including efficiency!
Indeed, some have mentioned patient satisfaction as a “plus one” goal of the Triple Aim of safer care, better population health and lower costs.
Photo: Flickr user Keith Cooper
