Cardiovascular medicine’s rising cost of staying current — in imaging, structural heart devices and electrophysiology — has pushed many independent practices toward a choice between the capital themselves: Sell to a hospital, or find a partner willing to fund growth without taking over decision-making.
For Cookeville, Tenn.-based Tennessee Heart, the answer arrived this year in a capital partnership with Atria Health, paired with a clinical affiliation through Stern Cardiovascular. Physicians at the practice say the deal was built specifically to avoid trading one for the other.
Vertilio Cornielle, MD, a cardiologist at Tennessee Heart whose practice spans noninvasive cardiology work, including structural imaging, transesopahgeal echocardiogram, nuclear cardiology and now administrative an leadership role, said the group looked at several affiliation options before choosing Atria.
“We were looking for a partner that will let us remain as the physician leaders of our practice, making clinical decisions, while providing the operation supports that we need and the capital investment that we need to improve our diagnostic technology and technology that we need to improve access of care to our community,” Dr. Cornielle said.
Atria Health is a physician-owned company backed by Cypress Ridge Partners that provides capital and operational support to independent cardiology groups without taking an ownership stake. Germantown, Tenn.-based Stern Cardiovascular, founded in 1920 with more than 20 locations across Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, gives Tennessee Heart a broader clinical network. Stern and Atria announced their own strategic partnership in March.
For Dr. Cornielle, the priority behind the deal was about who makes the decisions.
“Physician-led practice, where a physician remains their independence — I think that’s the main thing for us,” he said, adding that when physicians control clinical decisions, they are better positioned to shape care around what patients in their community actually need, rather than around a larger organization’s priorities.
That independence matters in a region where patients often drive hours for specialty care.
“Access is truly a challenge for those patients, because a lot of times those patients are making the decisions to go and commute for hours to try to get access and care,” Dr. Cornielle said. “So for us, it’s very special that we’re able to provide advanced cardiovascular care. We have the opportunity to develop advanced cardiovascular care to communities like this, while partnering with other hospitals and providers and specialties, so we can provide the care that they need closest to home and keep it locally.”
The capital has already been translated into new equipment. Tennessee Heart is updating its EMR system and echo machines, and rolled out a mobile PET imaging unit within days of finalizing the partnership.
“A few days after we started, we had a mobile PET unit already ready in our parking lot, and our patients are already benefiting from that while we build our imaging PET center in our building,” Dr. Cornielle said.
His advice to other independent cardiology groups weighing a similar decision centers on that same trade-off.
“It’s a very personal decision, but I think every physician — if I have to speak for most of them — values independence and having control of the clinical decisions made in their clinic, and how they can improve access through partnership with a larger platform of physicians or potential hospital partners,” he said. “If that’s something that’s valued, certainly there’s a lot of opportunity in partnerships like this.”
Looking ahead, Dr. Cornielle said he hopes more health systems and private practices take a similar approach to closing gaps in rural access.
“This is a good opportunity for hospitals and private practices to improve access and outreach in communities,” he said, describing a shared goal for physicians, private practices and hospitals alike.
“Moving forward with partnerships like these,” he said, “we’re not here to build an empire. We’re trying to grow the villages.”
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