Spine surgeons' 'new avenues' to reach patients
By Admin | February 29, 2024
Patient referrals and maintaining volumes is crucial for any strong spine practice. And as the healthcare landscape and technologies evolve, spine surgeons need to adapt.
Five spine surgeons discuss their strategies for patient referrals.
Next question: What policies and issues are you following most closely headed into the 2024 election?
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: As healthcare changes, what pivots are you making to grow patient volume and referrals?
Brian Gantwerker, MD. The Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: Patient volume and referrals are not necessarily a package deal. Referral sources may come and go, sometimes which insurance the practice takes pushes the latter more than almost anything. Growing patient volume is the sole supporting source for many overgrown and bloated practices dependent on 'making the nut' each year. Smarter practices will focus on patient experience and satisfaction throughout the process — from intake to graduation. Referral sources can be capricious and you can do an amazing job with a difficult patient or case and the referring physician may not even register your efforts. It is best to keep on grinding and spreading the gospel through happy patients and honest reviews.
Jason Liauw, MD. Hoag Orthopedic Institute (Laguna Hills, Calif.): I am a big believer that the patient is the ultimate customer. And patient education is a driving choice. I have seen this play a larger role in the interest for cervical and lumbar artificial discs. Increasingly I have become a big believer in cervical and even lumbar arthroplasties as I have seen great results with my own eyes in both cohorts. In fact, with the advent of the Simplify disc which is semi-constrained, I rarely do anterior cervical fusions. I only do ACDFs when I see patients who have significant facet arthropathy or other indications of instability. With future pivots, I think patients will continue to drive innovation and adoption of technology. I think there is still significant momentum to drive spine surgery even more minimally invasive and endoscopic. I think less invasive surgery will be the way I pivot in the future to grow volume so long as I believe the technology doesn't compromise biomechanical integrity. I think a pivot towards more minimally invasive surgeries will be driven by patients. This wouldn't be dissimilar to the shift we have seen from open neurovascular and open cardiovascular surgeries to endovascular platforms.
Krishna Satyan, MD. Dallas Neurosurgical & Spine (Plano, Texas): As healthcare continues to change, technology also advances rapidly. There are many new avenues of reaching patients and referring providers. One of the important things right now is to have a...(More)
For more info please read, Spine surgeons' 'new avenues' to reach patients, by Becker's Spine Review
