About Us ⁄ History

ABOUT US

History

1971  California Emergency Physicians (CEP) is formed by Dr. Roy Stambaugh as a loose affiliation of physicians providing emergency medicine services to hospitals. The office is in Dr. Stambaugh's garage at his home in Rolling Hills Estates, CA.

CEP signs its first ED contract with Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, CA, north of San Diego. Still a CEP America contract, Palomar is now a busy Level 2 Trauma Center seeing over 5,000 patients per month.

1975 CEP reorganizes as a General Partnership as adopts a long-term view toward its future. The Democratic Partnership culture continues to function today.

CEP moves its headquarters from Dr. Stambaugh's garage to an office space in Fresno, CA, and forms MedAmerica, a medical practice support company. Today, MedAmerica provides practice management services to over 2,000 providers who care for almost five million patients annually.

 1979 
Dr. Joel Stettner becomes the first CEP Partner to be elected  President of CAL/ACEP.

 1985
CEP has 20 hospital contracts that it currently manages.

CEP establishes its Ambulatory Care Division.

CEP hires its first Physician Assistant (PA). Today, CEP America employs over 600 PAs and Nurse Practitioners (NP).

 1991
CEP forms malpractice insurance company, MedAmerica Mutual Risk Retention Group, a physician-directed liability insurer serving emergency medicine physician groups.

 1993 MedAmerica Billing Services, Inc. (MBSI), forms to provide coding, billing, auditing and reporting services to emergency medicine and other types of practices.
 
 1995 CEP celebrates its 20th Anniversary at its Spring Partnership meeting in San Francisco, CA.

 2000
CEP celebrates its 25th Anniversary at the Fall Partnership meeting at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA.

CEP has 40 of the hospital contracts that it currently manages.

Dr. Prentice Tom is appointed CEP's first Chief Medical Officer (CMO). The CMO position was created to oversee demonstrated performance improvement and the development of Best Practices.

 2001
Pioneers Memorial Hospital launches CEP's Rapid Medical Evaluation (RME)® Program, allowing the emergency department treatment process to begin immediately.

 2003
CEP begins offering a clinical Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program.

RME is widely adopted throughout CEP's hospital sites, resulting in significant decrease in patient wait times.

 2005 CEP is awarded its first two out-of-state contracts, Adventist Medical Center in Oregon and DeKalb Medical Center in Georgia. California Emergency Physicians becomes CEP America.

 2009
CEP America expands across the country with new contracts in Arizona, Illinois and Washington state.

 2011
CEP America merges with Sutter Emergency Medical Associates (SEMA), adding 200,000 more patients to its existing patients base. CEP America now cares for over a quarter of all patients who visit an emergency room in California.

CEP America partners with Owensboro Medical Health System in Owensboro, KY.
 
 Today 
CEP America is the largest democratic emergency medicine group in the US, with over 80 emergency departments,  20 acute care centers, and over 1,600 providers who treat 3.5 million patients per year.