US Radiology Specialists hires executive from its private equity backer to fill out C-suite
US Radiology Specialists has made a change in its C-suite, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based imaging group announced Thursday, June 8.
It’s bringing aboard Paul Taheri, MD, MBA, as the company’s new chief clinical officer to work closely with USRS’s growing network of radiologists. Taheri most recently served as a clinical partner at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, the private equity firm whose initial investment helped form US Radiology Specialists in 2018.
Prior to joining WCAS full time in 2021, he served as CEO and deputy dean of clinical affairs for Yale Medicine for eight years and chief executive of the University of Vermont Medical Group before that. During Taheri’s tenure, Yale Medicine saw its revenue double from $602 million in 2013 to $1.2 billion by his final year. It also added more than 1,000 physicians, ballooning Yale’s total to 2,500 in 2021.
“Dr. Taheri is uniquely qualified to partner with our physician leaders to drive US Radiology’s focus on clinical quality and other areas that are critical to the success of a physician-led organization,” USRS Chief Executive Officer John Perkins, MBA, said in an announcement.
He started off part-time as a senior advisor to Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in 2019 before going full-time two years later. There, Taheri has focused on physician leadership development, managing risk and optimizing clinical diversity in the private equity firm’s portfolio. Taheri also has sat on the boards of WCAS-backed US Anesthesia Partners and the Health Management Academy, a “strategic partner” of the private equity firm, providing research, growth support services, knowledge sharing, and leadership development to other healthcare entities.
In his new role at US Radiology Specialists, the former surgeon will lead a clinical team focused on quality, medical education, communications, physician engagement and other key issues, according to the announcement.
“I’m honored to take on this important role with US Radiology,” said Taheri. “I look forward to working alongside more than 400 physicians nationwide to continue raising the bar for patient care, quality, expertise and talent,” he added later.
Charlotte Radiology founded USRS alongside Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe five years ago. The group now operates 180 outpatient imaging centers across 14 states and conducts 8 million studies annually. Last year, the practice took on $450 million in debt to fuel the largest transaction in its history.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.