BelHealth Investment Partners LLC, a healthcare-focused private equity firm, acquired AHS Staffing LLC, a healthcare staffing firm based in Edmond, Okla. AHS operates two divisions: pharmastat for pharmacy staffing and renalstat for dialysis travel nurses.

BelHealth acquired a majority stake in the company from CEO Mark Smith, President Jerick Henley and three next-level managers. This team will remain in place and continue to lead the company, which will retain the AHS brand.

The transaction closed Oct. 14; terms were not disclosed.

“We are excited to partner with BelHealth, an experienced healthcare private equity firm,” Smith said. “We have a built a strong platform that is well positioned to capture the significant opportunities in the healthcare staffing market. BelHealth has an extensive healthcare network and we look forward to working together to build AHS into a diversified, national staffing business.”

Smith’s history in the healthcare industry also includes founding Foundation Medical Staffing in 1999. That company was later sold in 2005 to CHG Healthcare Services.

BelHealth has $500 million of assets under management and only invests in the healthcare sector. AHS is its first healthcare staffing firm investment. Plans call for adding recruiters and business development professionals nationwide to fuel organic growth, and also aggressively pursuing add-on acquisitions that provide service line and geographic diversification.

The private equity firm is in preliminary conversations with a few possible acquisitions targets but it is too soon to comment on them, according to Paul Barrett, senior associate at BelHealth. It is seeking travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, physical therapy and lab staffing providers.

“Mark and Jerick are experienced entrepreneurs that have built an exceptional business,” Barrett said. “We look forward to partnering with the entire AHS team and helping the company accelerate its growth. With the prior successes of the founders, favorable industry tailwinds, focus on specialty areas of healthcare staffing and fragmentation of the industry yielding numerous add-on acquisitions, we are confident in our approach to build a national, diversified staffing platform through both organic growth and acquisitions.”