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Imagine this. You're at the Hyatt Regency Chicago

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immersed in insightful discussions with the health care

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industry's top leaders.

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Welcome to Becker's 12th annual CEO

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and CFO roundtable from November 11th to 14th

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2024.

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Picture yourself networking with over a 1000 executive

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level attendees,

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collecting business cards, and forging valuable connections.

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Feel the excitement as you engage in 4

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days of sessions featuring 400

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elite health system speakers.

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Envision yourself diving deep into critical topics like

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rural health care, digital transformation,

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health equity, and c suite diversity.

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Now imagine being inspired by our celebrity keynotes,

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pro football hall of famers Troy Aikman and

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Emmett Smith, 43rd president George w Bush, and

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author and journalist Jenna Bush Hager. Their stories

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will leave you motivated and energized.

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Don't miss this unparalleled

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Get registered today. Visit beckershospitalreview.com

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and click on the events page to find

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the conference website.

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That's the beckers

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hospital

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review.com events page. See you in Chicago.

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This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare

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podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor

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Tanvir Sasse,

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chief of neurosurgery administration at Mount Sinai, Queens.

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Doctor Sasse, it's a pleasure to have you

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on the podcast today.

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Thank you so much for having me, Laura.

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It's a pleasure to hear.

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Now I know we've got a lot to

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talk about, but before we dive into our

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broader conversation

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and, you know, discuss some of the things

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that you're doing at Mount Sinai, Queens, I

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I would love to have you introduce yourself

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and tell us a little bit about your

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background.

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Absolutely.

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So my name is Tamir Sharsi. I'm a

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primary care physician by training.

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I do a practice.

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I started my career back in India as

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a as a primary care physician.

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Moved to the the business of medicine 15

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years ago. Back and take care of my

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father's hospital back in India, but I never

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ended up going there.

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He still hates me for that.

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So I started my administrative career

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as a as a administrative resident at New

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York Hospital in Queens, now the New York

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Presbyterian Queens and New York City.

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Worked through the ranks there, became a practice

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manager, then moved over to Emory,

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ran the OBGYN,

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a program for the entire health system at

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Emory Healthcare.

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Came back to Sinai to run the operations,

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for the for the department of neurosurgery.

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Continue to, you know, climb through the ranks.

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Now I oversee

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the entire spectrum of neurosurgical,

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programs at at all the hospitals at Mount

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Sinai.

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I also oversee, you know, the entire administrative

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spectrum of of Mount Sinai Queens. That's a

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newer program which we started, like, a few

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years ago.

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So starting from soup to nuts, you know,

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on figuring out how many physicians do we

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need, how many

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inpatient best do we use, What sort of

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staffing do we need, you know, in the

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ICUs,

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in the OR, in the outpatient side to

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support the physician and the number of physician,

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how we grow them,

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how we can provide call coverage. You know?

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So we the goal was,

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on the eastern

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northeast and northwestern end of Queens,

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there wasn't, you know, a lot of neurosurgical

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presence. And Queens is like the population of

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Queens is 3,500,000

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people,

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and there weren't enough,

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clinicians

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who will provide spine and brain care to

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the entire, you know, population of, of the

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Queensborough.

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So that's was the main reason to start

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over in press wrapped up our volume.

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We are doing most of our cases that

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come in Queens and Mount Sinai Queens Hospital.

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We have recruited another physician who's starting in

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in 2 months. So the plan is to

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continue,

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to have growth in Queen.

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But along with it's not just Queen's. We

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want to, you know, capture the other areas

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as well. So in the last 4 years

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or so at Mount Sinai Health System and

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Neurosurgery, we have expanded at 11 new sites.

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Post COVID, our volume has gone up by

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27%.

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We have now become the 2nd top 5,

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high volume academic programs in the country.

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We are one of the top 10 neurosurgical

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programs in the world.

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So, you know, we have lot of world

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class physicians, and the goal for me is

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to provide

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my chairman, my physician leaders, my all other

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physicians

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the top notch, you know, support, be it

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equipment in the OR, be it equipment in

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the outpatient

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side, be it the staffing, the clinic clinicians,

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the outpatient staff. I want them to provide

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all possible resources at Mount Sinai that I

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can.

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So that's the ultimate goal, and we've been

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fairly successful in doing so in the last

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many years at Mount Sinai.

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That's great to hear and, you know, really

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cool that you've had such,

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positive results and move the needle in many

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different ways. From your perspective, what are some

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of the top priorities for you the rest

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of the year? What's top of mind and

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and what initiatives are you focusing most of

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your time on?

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Absolutely.

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I think it is is evolving. Right? And

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I live like soccer. The physicians are the

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center forward,

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and, you know, all the others, support team,

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right, be it the the advanced practice providers,

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the nurses, administrators,

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administrative staff.

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We are just the, you know, defenders, left

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wingers,

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you know, support team, right, to make sure

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that whatever we need to do,

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we do it the best for the patients.

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So that brings a lot of challenges. Right?

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And we live and work in Manhattan,

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probably one of the

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most competitive places in the world. Right? So

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we have to be competitively ahead of others.

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Right? You know, we have

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top notch hospital, NYU,

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Cornell, Columbia, Mount Sinai, Northwell.

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So

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for the next 6 months as well as

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going forward is how do we, stay competitively

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ahead. Right?

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How we can expand into the other territories

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where we haven't been, and maybe our competitors

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are also trying to go in there. One

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example would be, you know, Long Island. Like,

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it's a it's a large piece of land

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with 3,

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counties,

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approximately

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7,000,000 people who live in there. There's not

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much health care that that is is is

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there

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that can provide top notch care.

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So NYU has expanded into their we have

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expanded,

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our footprint

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in in in Long Island. And for the

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next 6 months is to continue to stay

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competitively ahead,

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continue to expand our foot footprint and provide

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that level of care to the patient that

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we can and keep on brainstorming as to

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what we can do,

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with the focus on the long term, the

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growth, expansion,

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and providing the, you know, best possible care

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to the patients.

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That really makes a lot of sense. And,

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you know, it's great to hear that there's

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growth ahead. From your perspective, I wanna dig

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a little bit deeper. What programs and initiatives

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have been most needle moving for you in

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the last year or so?

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The main has been, I would say,

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growth of our pediatric neurosurgery program.

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It's it's a very niche category,

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And we have, you know, some of the

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top notch neurosurgeons

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in in in focusing pediatric neurosurgery

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in the world.

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However,

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you know, so in in in medicine, right,

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referrals come to physicians from the other physicians,

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and it becomes a habit. And you

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have been a physician, so I understand that

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very well. So if I'm referring a physician

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to, you know, one physician, it's hard for

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that specific physician or me to convince me

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that he or she is better than can

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provide better care to my patients than the

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physician I'm referring to. Right? So in pediatric

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intersurgery, that has been a major major

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pain point for us to see how we

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can break the habit of those physicians who

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are referring to others.

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And we know we have the best in

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the world. Right? But breaking that habit has

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been I mean, but it's it's starting to

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gain some traction, so hopefully,

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it'll pick up soon.

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2nd needle moving point has been, now starting

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to expand in,

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Long Island. So those 2 have been

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quite a painful,

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areas, but I think the the analgesic is

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is working now. So we we should be

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fairly okay in the in the next 6

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months or so, and going forward it it

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should get much better.

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That's helpful to know and, you know, I

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appreciate you sharing with us. Now before we

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wrap up here, I'm wondering how are you

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thinking about growth and

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experience over the next few years, for your

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teams?

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What do you really see as being different

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over the next 2 to 3 years as

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health care continues to evolve? So we we

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will actively intervene, actively recruiting. The plan is

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to grow and and never stop. Right? Stagnation

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is boring, and we we don't like stagnation.

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So we have a few physicians who are

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starting, you know, as 1 when one physician

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started, another set of team that starts with

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the physician.

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So our goal is to,

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expand into Eastern Long Island,

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Northwestern New Jersey,

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north in New York, state. We are trying

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to

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use some creative,

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you know, methodologies in how we want to

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see our patients.

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So currently, all the patients are being seen

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by the physicians with some seen by the

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advanced practice providers.

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We are trying to shift that model that,

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you know, any patient that doesn't need to

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be seen by by the surgeon

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should be seen by the advanced practice provider.

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They filter the, they screen the patient out.

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They filter all the,

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requirements they need for the patient to be

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seen by the surgeon. What this will do

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and surgical patients, and we should be able

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to provide, you know, broader care

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to to a broader set of community versus,

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not having patients physicians focus on patients who

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really need their intervention,

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and and, you know, changing their lives. So

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those are a couple of the,

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the main things we are looking at.

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Got it. That's so helpful to know. Doctor

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Sassi, thank you so much for joining us

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on the podcast today. This has been such

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a fascinating discussion, and I look forward to

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connecting with you again soon.

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Pleasure is all mine. Thank you so much

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for having