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This is Scott Becker with the Becker's HealthCare
podcast.
I am thrilled today to be joined by
the real Ben Stein. We're joined today by
Ben Stein, who's in the health care world.
Ben, I'm gonna ask you to tell us
about yourself, tell us about Capital Surgical, and
a lot more. Take and then we'll talk
about trends, where you're most focused, and a
lot more.
Tell us about yourself.
I appreciate that, Scott. Thanks for having me,
having me on.
The you know, a little bit about myself.
So I am a, orthopedic surgeon,
practice in the Washington DC Metropolitan area,
and, I've been in private practice independent in
this region,
for a little over 12 years now.
And,
about 6 years ago, I
kind of recognized different trends happening within the
ambulatory surgical center sphere,
and kind of aggregation and consolidation, and,
was seeing a little bit of a void
in the market that I felt
I might be able to cater to. And
so selfishly for myself, for my own surgical
out lay, but even, close friends and colleagues
in the region,
I went about,
forming and creating a
truly surgeon led, a surgeon owned, run,
orthopedic MSK focused facility here in the Washington
DC area with a very strong focus on
joint replacement arthroplasty surgery, and we, you know,
opened about four and a half years ago.
In tandem with that, I created, my management
development company, which is called Capital Surgical Solutions,
which I am cofounder on with a colleague
of mine,
because we we it resonated very quickly to
the extent that regionally, we were starting to
get other people asking about doing something similar
and extra regionally. And so that said this
kind of passion of mine to try
to cater to surgeons that I felt were
similarly minded to me that want
to really make sure they were able to
deliver care at a level they had control
over again,
in the setting that they could be happy
with with teams. They could be happy with
long term and have control not over not
over not over just
the short term, but even the intermediate term
and longer term trajectory of those facilities. And
so that's kind of the the, I would
say, the the reason for why I'm doing
what I'm doing with Capital Surgical Solutions and
the history of it.
So fantastic. And and doctor Stein, you went
to Johns Hopkins for your residency.
What what was that like when you're around
some of the brightest people in the world?
How long did it take you to adjust
to feel like, oh, I'm fine. I belong
here. What was that experience like going to
Johns Hopkins?
That's a that's a great great question. I
mean, amazing,
eye opening, you know, to be at a
facility in a hospital system like that and
health system that really just delivers,
some of the most exceptional care, not just
in the United States, but in the world
and being surrounded by mentors to me throughout
my training, both clinically and even people from
a nonclinical perspective was just very eye opening.
I think helped to foster a lot of
what I've become with time and practice and
where I've evolved and what I'm doing. But
it was a fantastic experience unlike any other.
Thank you. And talk about when you look
at the world of surgery centers today,
there's so many interesting challenges in terms of,
you know,
are there enough surgeons to join surgery centers?
What what do you sort see out there?
I mean, a lot of the orthopedic surgeons
have stayed relatively independent, so it leaves room
for surgery centers. But what do you see
out there in the long run for surgery
centers and the independence of specialties like orthopedics?
I think that's a great I think that's
a great question. I think that, you know,
I think you're seeing pendulums that have, like,
swung in one direction that are now starting
to swing back where, you know, ambulatory surgery
centers in the orthopedic sphere, historically,
did have a lot of relative independence or
relative surgeon control of these facilities. And, obviously,
over time, that's changed because the pendulum is
swung the other way. But more and more
you're seeing amongst surgeons
that understand the value of what they're bringing,
or having cases of of increased acuity, like
joint replacements and spine replacements
being migrated
to the surgical center sphere,
they're wanting more, impact and control over that.
They wanna be able to actually
have a a location they go to outside
the hospital where they have the the ability
to control all facets of care, including
the preoperative experience from nurse navigators, the same
day experience from the team, rendering the care
whether it's anesthesia,
recovery nurses, OR teams, sterilization
technicians.
And so I see that, I see it,
swinging back that way. And I say that
because, you know, I did what I did
6 years ago. We already opened our second
facility here with 13 other independent surgeons in
this market about a year ago that has
a big spine focus. And now we're opening
1 in Denver in the near term and
one in other another 2 markets in the
pipeline.
And that's without any,
any marketing or any chatting about it. It's
because of the fact there are still a
pretty large swath of independent surgeons,
who have the ability
to control that destiny. And I would argue
that even the surgeons that are not necessarily
in that, that might be in consolidated,
private equity based groupings or even in the
health system
groupings,
many of them are also having a new
ability to look at that optionality
even if it's in a shared partnership with
the health system or other entity,
to help drive that narrative. And so I
think it's I think it's swinging back that
way, and I think it's intelligently swinging swinging
back that way because I think that's where
the facilities function best is when you have
surgeons that are,
not just passive,
bystanders to the operation, but are actually hands
on engaged,
and able to steer that ship in the
best way possible, for them, for their teams,
and for their patients, most importantly.
Thank you very, very much. And and doctor
Stein, what are you most excited about
currently and most focused on currently? Is it
growth of your own practice? It grows to
Capital Surgical? Is it a mix of both?
What what what catch you up in the
morning most excited and most focused?
Yeah. So, you know, it's evolved over time.
I still love practicing. I love doing what
I do, but I've I honestly have a
tremendous passion for the, for this second hat
I wear with Capital Surgical Solutions, and it's
something I get very excited about because it's
allowed me to
have conversations such as this or be out
there meeting surgeons in different markets and learning
more about,
the actual operations of the business, how best
to accomplish the goals that are kind of
shared between us and our partners that we
work with in these various facilities. And so
that's really gotten it's it's kinda hit a
a big kind of zone of passion for
me, and I find that's kind of probably
where most of the growth is happening for
me personally,
because I love it. You know, it's, it's
obviously
been very satisfying and fulfilling, and I and
I see it continuing to grow, at least
based on what I've seen thus far. And
I'm really, really dialed in and enjoying it
quite a bit.
Fantastic. And
and and take a second and sort of,
you know, you let me ask you this
question. I started with this in our in
our conversation where we started. You know, one
of what are my
favorite sort of fascinating, brilliant people to watch
when I was younger? And I've read some
of his books as well, and I find
it to be a brilliant, brilliant person, And
he doesn't shy away from working hard is
is Ben Stein.
Like,
how often do you get asked if you're
that Ben Stein and I'm older than you
are? So I wonder if our audience, the
younger part of our audience, might even not
know who the who the who the other
Ben Stein was, but but talk a little
bit about that. So it was a famous
Ben Stein, actually served of all places in
the Nixon White House, and he he's an
interesting guy, had his own TV show, Win
Ben Stein's Money. Talk a little bit about
that.
Sure. You know, look, I I I prior
to Hopkins, I did undergraduate med school at
George Washington DC, and Ben Stein's from the
DC area from Silver Springs. So I used
to have many,
joking conversations with his friends who'd seen him
around town, etcetera. But, you know, an immensely
impressive guy. He was very you know, he
I think he's still with us. Very bright.
Nixon speechwriter was also involved in economic,
advisement. I think his father was also an
economist.
And so, you know, tremendously intelligent guy, had
a popular show that was fun to watch,
and then started some movies I love. And
so, you know, as far as, you know,
the
him mentoring me, not really, but as far
as, like, you know, me enjoying the fact
there was someone like that out there with
the name, I've always had a great,
you know, joking around about that. Am I
named after him now? But, but but a
cool figure out there, and I think somebody
who's really done some impressive stuff. And I'm
fortunate enough to share his name. That's what
I would say.
It's it it's so cool. And and talk
a little bit about you've had this great
career as an orthopedic surgeon,
but you also love what you do and
you've got some other efforts as well in
the business side of orthopedics
and in growth.
How important is that that mix of things
to keep the career interesting and fend off
burnout and stay excited? How important is that
for physicians to to be doing
not just knees every day, not just spine
every day, but be doing some other stuff
to to sort of
excite their mind and and move them forward
and and motivate them. What's your thoughts on
that that mix of things? I think I
think it's a great I think I think
it's very important because I think and you
know this given what you do and you
have tremendous expertise in health care and, you
know, it's evolved so much, and there are
so many components of what we do as
physicians that we kinda seemingly start to lose
control over or that erodes over time and
or seemingly happen that way. And I think
what I would say is that, you know,
as a as a physician, I don't care
if you're an orthopedist or any other type
of physician,
the more you can kinda get engaged and
and components that have to do with actually
you know, can seem kind of too hard
to do, it's something that you will benefit
from. Because if you get engaged in how
you operate and how the practice is run
and how the relationships managed care work and
how it works in the value based system
and how all these pieces function, then you're
gonna end up enjoying your practice more because
you'll have a better sense of the larger
environment. And so I think it's very important
to diversify what you're doing. Obviously, for somebody
that might be a different line than what
I've tackled, which is the inventory surgery centers,
but, I think it's a very important thing
to do.
Thank you very, very much. And and doctor
Stein, how could you learn more about Capital
Surgical Solutions or about your practice? And congratulations
on on where you're going with this. It's
gone fantastic so far. Tell us where people
can learn more about Capital Surgical Solutions and
and what you do.
I really appreciate that. Yeah. You know, so
we, like I said, we you know, we've
launched in this market now with our 2nd
facility. We're heading down to different states now.
They're
ASC friendly, I would say, states as far
as your current regulatory stance, which obviously is
evolving as well.
You know, and I you know, as far
as,
communicating with us, connecting with us, we do
have a website, capitalsurgalsolutions.com.
It has all of our contact information there,
me and the rest of
my team, which are really built from, I
think, a unique, a unique bunch of very
knowledgeable individuals, including my cofounder and others that
are really out here to try to partner
with, with the surgeons, with the correct surgeon
grouping to try to give them what they
want, which is a setting where they're truly
in the driver's seat or,
you know, really we're really a tag along,
drag along,
partner with them, long term focused, not with
any ability to do anything without their, say,
and, you know, doing so in a manner
that we feel will make it the best
place for them to operate at, take care
of their patients,
and kinda thread that needle. And so I
think for surgeons that are in
scenarios and some of the some of the
scenarios are currently evolving because of what's happened
inside,
some of the the landscape, I would say,
amongst specialists like us that are in that
position of wanting to maybe refocus their lens
on their ASC strategy, just reach out. We're
happy to to chat,
and just provide input as we can, which
we've done many times, or work and partner
with. But, you know,
that yeah. That's what I would tell you.
We'd love to chat with anybody who has
interest, and they can they can look at
us on our website and kinda go from
there.
Doctor Stein, thank you so much for joining
us today on the Pecos Healthcare podcast. What
a pleasure to visit with you, and congratulations
on all your success. Thank you very much.
Thanks so much, Scott. I really appreciate it.