Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Team Health is among the largest national providers of outsourced physician staffing and administrative services to hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States. Team Health provides permanent staffing, management and administrative services to approximately 600 hospitals, medical imaging centers, surgery centers, clinics and military treatment facilities in 44 states. Originally called Southeastern Emergency Physicians (SEP), the company was founded in 1979. In a recapitalization transaction in March 1999 Team Health, which had been part of MedPartners Inc., was sold to private equity firms Madison Dearborn Partners, Cornerstone Equity Investors and Beecken Petty & Co. In November 2005, the Blackstone Group acquired Team Health.