The following release was issued by Extended Care Information Network on March 22, 2001.
Northbrook, Illinois, March 22, 2001 – Extended Care Information Network, Inc. (ECIN), the leading provider of discharge-planning solutions and resources for the healthcare industry and consumers, today announced it has raised $5 million in equity financing. The financing was led by William Blair Capital Partners VI, L.P., a current investor in ECIN. William Blair Capital Partners VI, L.P. is a private investment fund of Chicago-based William Blair Capital Partners that is focused on healthcare, business services and technology investments in growth companies.
Also participating in this equity round were Gamma Investors, Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC) and individual shareholders of ECIN. Gamma Investors, a venture-capital firm based in King of Prussia, PA, invests primarily in companies with internet applications. Tenet, a strategic investor and the nation’s second largest hospital network, earlier signed a long-term service agreement to license ECIN’s automated discharge-planning applications to improve efficiency and patient satisfaction at its hospitals.
ECIN President and CEO Jeff Surges said, “This additional capital will allow us to continue to establish and rapidly expand our nationwide electronic community of hospitals and extended-care providers in key markets. Over the past year we have built a tremendous amount of momentum and are experiencing very exciting growth in all of our business metrics. We value the unique contribution each of these investment partners brings to ECIN.”
About ECIN
ECIN is the first company and market leader offering Internet solutions and resources that connect hospitals and consumers with extended-care providers, including skilled nursing facilities, assisted-living and other senior-living residences, and home health care agencies. Founded by healthcare professionals, ECIN’s products and services automate the discharge-planning process for hospitals, enhance the admissions process and improve business efficiencies for extended-care providers, and assist consumers in finding extended-care providers and information on senior-health issues through its Web site, www.extendedcare.com. ECIN is based in Northbrook, Illinois.
About William Blair Capital Partners
William Blair Capital Partners VI, L.P. is a $270 million private equity investment fund headquartered in Chicago. It is the sixth private equity fund affiliated with William Blair & Company, L.L.C., www.williamblair.com, a privately held, employee-owned investment banking firm serving high quality growth companies since 1935. William Blair Capital Partners, the firm’s private equity group founded in 1981, invests in well-managed growth companies across a variety of industries. To date, William Blair Capital Partners has invested in over 120 growth companies.
About Gamma Investors LLC
Gamma Investors, a venture-capital firm that operates out of King of Prussia, PA, was formed by the former partners of Cooper Neff & Associates, a derivatives trading boutique that was purchased by Banque Nationale de Paris in 1995. Since 1998, Gamma Investors has participated in 23 transactions in 18 different companies. The vast majority of Gamma Investor’s investments have been in early-stage companies with Internet applications with a further concentration in efinance companies.
About Tenet Healthcare Corporation
Tenet Healthcare, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates 110 acute care hospitals with 26,939 beds and numerous related healthcare services. The company employs approximately 103,500 people serving communities in 17 states and services its hospitals from a Dallas-based operations center. Tenet’s name reflects its core business philosophy: the importance of shared value among partners, including employees, physicians, insurers and communities, in providing a full spectrum of healthcare. Tenet can be found on the World Wide Web at www.tenethealth.com.