TeamHealth Enters Into Strategic Marketing Alliance With Specialists On Call

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TeamHealth, one of the largest suppliers of outsourced healthcare professional staffing and administrative services to hospitals, has entered into a strategic marketing alliance with Specialists On Call (SOC), a leading provider of hospital-based telemedicine consultations. Through this exclusive partnership, TeamHealth and SOC will jointly market a uniquely positioned service to provide TeamHealth's current and prospective hospital partners with access to 24/7/365 bedside telemedicine consultations by SOC's highly trained specialists.

The TeamHealth/SOC alliance is the first of its kind in the emergency medicine market and will offer hospitals a solution to some of the deficiencies in on-call specialist coverage.

According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, the on-call specialist shortage is a growing challenge, with more than 33% of all U.S. hospitals paying increasingly costly stipends to specialists for limited on-call coverage. Approximately 73% of emergency department medical directors report problems with insufficient numbers of specialists for on-call services. By 2020, there is expected to be a deficit of about 27,000 specialists to perform on-call service consultations. Beyond use in the emergency department, TeamHealth will be able to expand the specialist telemedicine services into its hospital medicine programs as well.

"The fact that SOC's specialists practice evidence-based medicine and adhere to nationally accepted standards of practice was very appealing to TeamHealth," stated Greg Roth, President and CEO, TeamHealth. "Their specialists are board certified and fellowship trained, with current or former experience in university settings. They've also delivered more than 40,000 emergency teleneurology consultations — more than any other organization in the country. Given our commitment to high quality patient care, SOC's level of expertise was a natural fit with our organization."

"SOC delivers a combination of clinical, quality and financial value to our clients that complements TeamHealth's services," stated Joe Peterson, MD, CEO of SOC. "We're committed to delivering high quality specialty physician coverage in the hospital setting, and our capability directly supports TeamHealth's affiliated hospital-based physicians. Together, this represents the most complete offering of on-demand care in the marketplace. As we further expand into new service lines and geographic markets, this synergy will continue to grow."

About TeamHealth

TeamHealth (Knoxville, Tenn.) (NYSE: TMH) was founded in 1979 and has become one of the largest suppliers of outsourced healthcare professional staffing and administrative services to hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States. Through its six principal service lines located in 15 regional sites, TeamHealth's approximately 7,100 affiliated healthcare professionals provide emergency medicine, hospital medicine, anesthesia, and pediatric staffing and management services to approximately 730 civilian and military hospitals, clinics, and physician groups in 47 states. The term "TeamHealth" as used throughout this release includes Team Health, Inc., and all of its related entities, divisions, subsidiaries and affiliated physicians and physician groups. For more information about TeamHealth, visit www.teamhealth.com.

About Specialists On Call

Specialists On Call, Inc. (SOC), is a Joint Commission-accredited organization that is changing emergency medicine. As the leading provider of emergency telemedicine consultations, SOC gives urban, suburban and rural hospitals vital 24/7/365 access to more than 65 board certified, fellowship trained academic specialists, each with a minimum of 10 years of experience. With more than 180 hospital clients and operations on both coasts, SOC provides more than 1,600 emergency consultations per month for hospitals nationwide and hospital systems such as Vanguard Health Systems, HCA, Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corporation.  For more information about Specialists On Call, visit www.specialistsoncall.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements and information contained herein that are not historical facts and that reflect the current view of Team Health Holdings, Inc.  (the "Company") about future events and financial performance are hereby identified as "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Some of these statements can be identified by terms and phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "continue," "could," "should," "may," "plan," "project," "predict" and similar expressions.  The Company cautions  that such "forward looking statements," including without limitation, those relating to the Company's future business prospects, revenue, working capital, professional liability expense, liquidity, capital needs, interest costs and income, wherever they occur in this or in other statements attributable to the Company, are necessarily estimates reflecting the judgment of the Company's senior management and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the "forward looking statements."  Factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to current or future government regulation of the healthcare industry, exposure to professional liability lawsuits and governmental agency investigations, the adequacy of insurance coverage and insurance reserves, as well as those factors detailed under the caption "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and the most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The Company's "forward looking statements" speak only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update "forward looking statements" herein to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events, or changes to future operating results over time.

SOURCE TeamHealth