FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MEDNAX, Inc. (NYSE: MD), a leading health solutions partner specializing in prenatal, neonatal, pediatric, anesthesiology and radiology services, today announced the proactive steps it has been taking in response to the rapidly evolving Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Clinicians are collaborating across the continuum of care to develop innovative solutions and best practices that are leading early detection efforts and enabling safe, uninterrupted patient care.
“Amid the growing COVID-19 concerns, our affiliated clinicians are on the frontlines in hospitals throughout the country, continuing to care for their patients, many of whom require critical specialty care,” said Roger Medel, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of MEDNAX. “We are committed to our mission to take great care of the patient, every day and in every way, and will continue to support our clinical and non-clinical workforce as we take every precaution possible to ensure their safety, and in turn our patients’ access to care.”
Supporting Clinicians and Patients
The Company has implemented a variety of solutions across specialties, including:
- Clinician Shortage Support
Anesthesiologists and anesthesia clinicians are assisting with critical care needs while non-emergent and elective surgical procedures are on hold, and pediatric clinicians are lending their expertise to help fulfill the need for added adult care.
- Strengthening of Supply Chain
MEDNAX is helping to address the shortage of PPE by partnering with vendors across industries to source high filtration respirators, surgical masks and other forms of PPE for protective use.
- Expanded Virtual Care Offerings
Utilizing VSee, an internationally-recognized telehealth platform, MEDNAX has deployed a national multi-specialty virtual clinic to expand its telehealth offerings and make virtual care available to its clinical workforce, enabling continued patient consults and clinician collaboration while minimizing COVID-19 exposure. For more information, visit mednax.com/telehealth.
- Early Virus Detection Using Cutting-Edge Imaging Diagnostic Tools
MEDNAX Radiology Solutions is leading early detection efforts through chest imaging. vRad, a MEDNAX company, diagnosed one of the first COVID-19 patients in the United States via chest computed tomography (CT), which showed findings consistent with a severe acute respiratory viral infection. In the absence of laboratory testing kits, chest CT can serve as a diagnostic tool. For more information, visit vRad’s blog.
In addition, MEDNAX Radiology Solutions is refining natural language processing (NLP) to identify the incidence of viral pneumonia and typical findings of the COVID-19 virus in the lungs via chest CT across the proprietary MEDNAX Imaging Platform and inference engine, which is connected to more than 2,000 partner facilities across the country. The NLP is run retrospectively to monitor the amount and rate of increase of suspected chest CT findings for COVID-19 and viral pneumonia, supporting faster treatment. If successful, this cutting-edge diagnostic tool could serve as an effective tracker of the disease’s progression throughout the country and provide new insights for imaging findings for COVID-19 patients.
- Virtual Forum to Provide Clinician Support
To support frontline clinicians while abiding by social distancing recommendations, MEDNAX has created a virtual doctors’ lounge for clinicians across specialties to connect and socialize in the absence of typical in-person lounges, helping to boost morale and preserve a sense of normalcy.
MEDNAX continues to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and work alongside the Company’s hospital partners nationwide to ensure affiliated clinicians are best able to continue providing vital specialized patient care. Company-wide and specialty-specific task forces are in place to monitor daily CDC and state and local developments, as well as review the latest clinical data from COVID-19 stricken countries. Updates are regularly communicated to staff via a dedicated employee resource page.
For more information, please visit mednax.com/COVID-19.
Operational Response
MEDNAX has also implemented a number of actions to preserve its financial flexibility and partially mitigate the significant anticipated impact of COVID-19 on the Company. Steps taken to reduce expenditures include:
- Temporarily reduced executive and key management base salaries, including 50% reductions in salaries for the Company’s most senior executive officers;
- MEDNAX’s Board of Directors have agreed to forego their annual cash retainer and cash meeting payments, until further notice;
- Enacting a combination of salary reductions and furloughs for non-clinical employees;
- Enacting significant operational and practice-specific expense reduction plans across the Company’s clinical operations; and
- Significantly reducing third-party expenditures - including a suspension of most activities related to the Company’s transformational and restructuring programs - limiting these expenditures to those that provide essential support for our response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
“These decisions were not made easily, but we are confident that they will help enable us to weather this unprecedented and challenging period,” continued Dr. Medel. “The steps we have taken, and are taking, are a meaningful part of our plan to position MEDNAX to be here for our patients, our healthcare partners and our employees long into the future.”
ABOUT MEDNAX
MEDNAX, Inc. is a national health solutions partner comprised of the nation's leading providers of physician services. Physicians and advanced practitioners practicing as part of MEDNAX are reshaping the delivery of care within their specialties and subspecialties, using evidence-based tools, continuous quality initiatives, consulting services, clinical research and telemedicine to enhance patient outcomes and provide high-quality, cost-effective care. The Company was founded in 1979, and today, through its affiliated professional corporations, MEDNAX provides services through a network of more than 4,325 physicians in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Additional information is available at www.mednax.com.
Certain statements and information in this press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements relating to our objectives, plans and strategies, and all statements, other than statements of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that we intend, expect, project, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These statements are often characterized by terminology such as “believe,” “hope,” “may,” “anticipate,” “should,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “positioned,” “strategy” and similar expressions, and are based on assumptions and assessments made by MEDNAX’s management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and MEDNAX undertakes no duty to update or revise any such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results, developments, and business decisions to differ materially from forward-looking statements are described in MEDNAX’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including the sections entitled “Risk Factors,” as well as MEDNAX’s Current Reports on Form 8-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and include the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the Company and its financial condition and results of operations; the effects of economic conditions on MEDNAX’s business; the effects of the Affordable Care Act and potential changes thereto or a repeal thereof; MEDNAX’s relationships with government-sponsored or funded healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and with managed care organizations and commercial health insurance payors; the timing and contribution of future acquisitions; the effects of share repurchases; and the effects of MEDNAX’s transformation and restructuring initiatives.
