Anesthesiologists at Mercy Regional Medical Center will become employees of U.S. Anesthesia Partners by this summer as part of a transition across Centura Health.

The issue of management over Mercy’s anesthesiologists was raised Wednesday at a Durango Chamber of Commerce event by a Mercy employee who said the anesthesiologists would be taken over by a private equity firm.

U.S. Anesthesia Partners is a physician-owned organization that offers practice management services to anesthesiologists and has private investors, according to its website. Its investors include Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe; Berkshire Partners; and GIC, according to U.S. Anesthesia Partners.

The hospital employs about 12 anesthesiologists who work across the hospital and in the ambulatory surgery center. All of the hospital’s anesthesiologists will be employed by U.S. Anesthesia Partners by July 1, said Mercy CEO Will McConnell.

“Our plan is to retain all the same physicians and provide all the same level of services,” McConnell said.

Centura Health’s partnership with U.S. Anesthesia Partners to provide services is part of a larger trend of physician-owned practices consolidating nationally, McConnell said.

“Nationwide, these groups are partnering with hospitals and leveraging their scale to gain efficiencies around structure, cost and improvement,” McConnell said.

U.S. Anesthesia Partners directed all questions about its new role as the employer of Mercy’s anesthesiologists to the hospital.

U.S. Anesthesia Partners employs 3,500 people in Florida, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Washington and Oklahoma, according to its website.

mshinn@durangoherald.com