Where are the most promoising areas for expansion? These leaders share how they're expanding their practice in the next year.
The six leaders featured in this article are all speaking at Becker's 21st Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC + The Future of Spine Conference which is set for June 19-22 at the Swissotel in Chicago.
If you would like to join either event as a speaker, contact Randi Haseman at rhaseman@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at our roundtable. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: Where do you see the best opportunities to expand your practice in the next year?
Thomas C. Schuler, MD, FACS. Spine surgeon and founder at Virginia Spine Institute as well as chairman at National Spine Health Foundation: The best area for practice expansion is improved customer service. While we are very good at this skill, there is always room for improvement and refinement. Too often, physicians forget that we are in a customer service industry. We constantly need to innovate our products and delivery to provide patients with the optimal care for each patient's needs and situation. Personalized, expert, contemporary care with each patient's best interest at the center of all decisions. That is our constant goal and our continued area for practice improvement.
Sterling Elliott, PharmD. Assistant professor for orthopaedic surgery and clinical pharmacist lead at Northwestern Medicine: I believe the value-based care environment is ripe for expansion of my practice. Quality is an ever-growing determinant of financial wellbeing in American healthcare today. Getting a head start on optimizing quality measures will position a practitioner and a practice to emerge at the forefront of a shifting care and economic landscape.
Shehzad Choudry, MD. Director for interventional spine and pain at Orlando Health Interventional Spine Pain Department: Our practice is always expanding. We are very specific on who we bring into our practice. Our group is very close, meaning that the neurosurgeons, the spine surgeons, the rehab physicians, the pain physicians and the neurology providers all work very closely together. So, if we have the right personality, then we try to make space for them somewhere in our department. Currently, we are looking for more inpatient pain providers as that is a sorely needed specialty in our hospital system. Pain has always been neglected across most hospital systems. In addition, our group will continue to expand into the suburbs.
Mick Perez-Cruet MD, MSc. Professor and vice chair of neurosurgery at Oakland University William Beaumont, School of Medicine: I see the best opportunities to expand my practice is by incorporating quality surgeons into my practice. Together we can help reduce our overhead burden and expand the amount of different treatment options. I look forward to working with these quality surgeons.
Mark Testaiuti, MD, FAANS. Spinal neurosurgeon, partner and vice president at Coastal Spine: If practice 'expansion' means treatment and not physical location, I could potentially see my practice evolving into less invasive treatment options, such as percutaneous, endoscopic, decompression and discectomy for cervical and lumbar disc disease. This is a highly technical procedure that requires good tactile and indirect visual spatial orientation, which orthopedic surgeons (who have been used to performing arthroscopy) have somewhat of a head start on over us neurosurgeons.
I also feel that disc replacement and possibly even facet replacement technology is improving and I can see offering that to more of my patients as indications broaden and technology improves. I currently am offering more and more hybrid, fusions and multilevel total displacements in patients where I would have done the standard fusion procedure in the past.
On the topic of regenerative medicine, I have yet to see good data on the benefit of intradiscal PRP or MSC to consider it a viable treatment option. My analysis is that there may be a place for this technology if it is proven ultimately effective. At the present time, I feel it mainly is done on patients who have the finances and willingness to accept the placebo effect as a good outcome.
Michael D. Burdi, MD. Partner at Community Orthopedic Medical Group: Taking cases traditionally done in a hospital and being able to adapt them to ASCs and marketing that would hopefully help expansion.
Aman Mahajan, MD, PhD, MBA. Senior vice president of health innovation at UPMC Enterprises as well as executive director at UPMC perioperative and surgical services: I see a multitude of promising opportunities to expand our practices. I am continually exploring ways to optimize patient experiences and outcomes by finding innovative ways to integrate digital tools into the patient journey, leveraging remote monitoring to improve care, and continuing to highlight the critical nature of perioperative care.
As the executive director of UPMC perioperative and surgical service line, I have long been committed to optimizing perioperative outcomes for the patients and improving the coordination of care during the entire perioperative care process. Some of the key areas of our expanded practices are in developing novel programs for improving patient’s health preoperatively; personalization and standardization of care delivery for patients based upon their complexity and risk; and implementation evidence-based pathways that allow the patient to return to their optimal state of functional, cognitive and psychological health after surgery. Through collaborative relationships with surgeons and other perioperative stakeholders, we continue to drive innovative healthcare solutions in the best interests of our patients.