Large medical practice to grow more

One of the largest orthopedic medical practices in the Sarasota-Manatee region is primed to get bigger.

The 17-doctor practice, Bradenton-based Coastal Orthopedics, also has a new CEO in Paige LeMay, who was hired in May. LeMay, previously chief operating officer of a 400-employee, 45-doctor practice outside Memphis, Tenn. replaces Paul Duck, who ran Coastal Orthopedics for less than two years.

One of LeMay's main objectives will be to manage growth at the practice, which has about $40 million in annual revenues. It will have five new surgeons on staff by the end of 2012, including two hand doctors, a trauma surgeon and a spinal specialist. The practice also plans to hire at least three new physician assistants.

LeMay says her hiring theory will be based on her experience in Tennessee, where the practice she helped run, the Campbell Clinic, won statewide accolades for best places to work. The strategy includes top-notch benefits, says LeMay, in addition to a culture of over-communicating with employees.

“At Coastal we not only want to be the medical provider of choice,” LeMay tells Coffee Talk. “I would also love for Coastal to be the employer of choice.”

Another key goal for LeMay is to accelerate Coastal's transformation from paper to electronic medical records — something many Gulf Coast practices will face in the next few years. Doctors, in general, are a notoriously tough group to adapt to sweeping changes. “It's more point and click, and it can be more cumbersome,” says LeMay. “But it will make things so much easier.”

Coastal has about 215 employees. The practice had annual revenues around $20 million from 2006-2008. It then grew dramatically in 2009, to $43.8 million, according to previous figures the firm provided to the Business Review. Coastal had $38.6 million in 2010 revenues, the last time it publicly released sales data.