Everything you pick up to read about the future of healthcare these days will almost always include how COVID figures into the mix. But I am optimistic about how we will soon be putting this virus into the "dust bin" of history ( it will still be around but hopefully not the villain it has been). It is not a stretch to tell you that healthcare has needed a serious reinvention. It's not just a matter of sky-high costs, way too much bureaucratic duties (paperwork, charting,etc), or not enough time to see and talk to your patients. Those are just the tip of the healthcare iceberg. For 30 years of my career, I was a hospital operating-room-type surgeon. When I had had enough, I became a non operating-room-type surgeon. I wasn't ready to stop being a surgeon, I was just ready to stop the nonsense that has slowly crept into medical care. So what does a surgeon do in that instance? There's probably a thousand things I could have done to keep my hands and brain engaged but I chose the road less traveled... start up a clinic that has never really existed before. So here was my chance to do "healthcare [...]

In my last blog, I talked about the patient's #1 complaint: they hate to wait. We determined that it was important to our patients that they be seen by the surgeon within 5 minutes of their appointment time and here's how we get it done: 1. Do a few things well. We do 12 procedures at QuikSurg, all are minor surgical procedures and all are done under local anesthesia. We have no plans for expansion into other health care areas. We will not be adding a vein clinic, a vasectomy center, or an IV room any time in the near future. While I believe all these are worthwhile, they would cause us to be sidetracked from our original vision and goal of seeing patients right after they come through the door. 2. We have done this "a time or 2". I saw no point in reinventing myself. When I decided to retire from the hospital OR, it only made sense that if I was going to start a clinic that it would be a surgical clinic (even though it hadn't been done before). Those 33 years in the hospital have made me a much more efficient surgeon. 3. Be prepared. I learned [...]

We'll start with the number 1 complaint by patients . It may surprise you that health care's most complained about problem is not expense, scheduling, staff rudeness, or poor communication (although all these issues made the top 10 list). A survey by the company Software Advice found that a whopping 97% of the 5,000 patients surveyed said, "we get frustrated by having to wait in the provider's exam rooms or in aptly-named waiting rooms". I have been a general surgeon for over 30 years so I can tell you that there will be emergencies/urgencies that intrude on the schedule but these tend to be the exception and not the rule. So what's the reason for this nearly universal waiting? I believe much of it comes from inefficiency and poor planning. When I started QuikSurg 6 years ago, I was frustrated with the overall direction of health care. It was continually moving away from the patient. I was determined to change that by setting a goal to have the surgeon be in the patient's room within 5 minutes of their appointment time. The "quick" in QuikSurg is not because we fly through procedures. I designed the clinic to be efficient in [...]

In my last blog, I talked about lipomas and what they are. These "fatty tumors" are usually solitary and usually not dangerous (not cancer). So what should be done about them? If you have what you think is a lipoma, it would be a good idea to see a doctor to confirm your suspicions. As I said last time, sometimes it's difficult to know whether you have a skin cyst ( a walled-in keratin sac made popular by Dr. Pimple Popper) or a lipoma, but neither are particularly emergent unless the cyst has become an abscess. Lipomas are not going to abscess but they do grow over time. I have seen some whoppers in my 30+ years of being a surgeon, many of them you could easily "see" right through their shirt. It's size that usually brings people to my door:  When they get big (we're talking 4-5 inches in diameter or larger) most surgeons want to remove them in the Operating Room where general anesthesia can make the whole process easier and faster... but certainly NOT cheaper! If you go to the OR, the cost to the patient skyrockets! If you have the time and the place to [...]

When I have a few additional minutes to kill, I turn on the TV and click through the channels. I will always find something that interests me, a favorite movie, a MASH rerun, or the news of the day. Yesterday I found the last 25 minutes of the movie, "Sully". I think we all know about the "Miracle on the Hudson" but it truly astonished me when I learned at the end of the movie that the time from the landing in the river to the dramatic rescue from the plane's wings took 24 minutes. That is truly incredible! Think about it. Had it been an exercise, a practice rescue on the Hudson, it would never have gone that well. It took cool under pressure from Captain Sullenberger but equal coolness from another Captain who was on the Hudson. Captain Vince Lombardi (no kidding), who was the man in charge of the Thomas Jefferson ferry, saw the plane and immediately headed their way. Upon arriving at the plane, his crew just did what they were trained to do. Said Captain Lombardi, 'they knew what needed to be done." (and they DID it!) As a result, others joined in the rescue [...]