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forward slash beckers podcast.
This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
Podcast, and we are recording live at the
twenty second annual Spine Orthopedic and Pain Management
Conference.
I'm currently joined by Ramesh Gaeth, who is
the chief medical officer at DXTX
Pain and Spine. So, Ramesh, thanks so much
for being here today. To start us off,
can you please share a little bit more
about yourself, your role, and your organization?
Thank you. Yes. My name is Ramesh Gaith.
I'm the chief medical officer of DXTX Pain
and Spine and medical director of Interventional Pain
Institute in St. Louis, Missouri.
I've been a physician for over two decades,
and,
excited to have joined,
DXTX Pain and Spine after meeting doctor John
Prunskis,
who is,
one of the founding members of the organization
and former presidential appointee to the Department of
Health and Human Services
pain management task force,
which established The US guidelines for the diagnosis
and treatment of painful conditions.
DXTX
Pain and Spine
is an organization
that is
majority physician and family owned
that operates surgery centers and practices dedicated to
the precise diagnosis and treatment of spine and
pain conditions.
We have approximately 60 locations spanning nine states,
and we adhere to a unique model characterized
by high physician ownership,
physician respect, and a steadfast commitment to complying
patient care.
In addition to offering growth capital and strategic
planning, DXTX provides comprehensive services in compliance, HR,
finance, operations, and revenue cycle management.
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for taking
the time to be here today. And let's
start off with what trends or shifts you're
currently seeing right now in the industry
that you think are most important for industry
leaders to pay attention to.
Throughout the years, we've noticed a significant shift
of physicians and private practices
moving away from hospital systems, operating rooms, and
entering the ambulatory surgical center world.
We noticed that, physician ownership of ASCs has
grown significantly and continues to grow
year after year.
And this is a very important
aspect of surgical care
as now we're seeing more and more operations
occurring on an outpatient basis.
Absolutely. And I'd also love to touch on
staffing and workforce challenges as these continue to
be a concern for health care leaders. So
how is your organization navigating these pressures, and
what strategies have you seen work well?
Workforce challenges are,
across the board,
affecting every organization.
Unfortunately, no one is immune,
to this particular
aspect of our,
changing landscape.
But
we do have a great workforce at DXTX
Pain Spine, and we attract good employees, especially
in a competitive market like health care.
It requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond
just offering a paycheck.
We define and communicate our mission very clearly.
Great employees wanna work somewhere with purpose.
We make our mission visible in every interaction.
We tell
our employees who we are, what we stand
for, and why our work matters.
We build a strong
employer brand.
Our reputation is everything. We showcase our testimonials.
We have community involvement,
and
we tell our patient
success
stories. And everyone takes pride in that, and
people want to work with an organization
that takes pride
in the care they provide like ours.
Absolutely. And as outpatient care continues to grow,
how do you see the role of orthopedics,
spine, and ASCs evolving within the broader health
care ecosystem?
As mentioned earlier, the the ASC landscape
is going to,
surpass and overcome
hospital outpatient,
departments, but also
intraoperative,
surgical cases
in the hospital itself.
We are moving away from the hospital based
model
to the independent
ambulatory
surgical center model where doctors have more independence.
They have more autonomy,
and they
have a
hand in changing the landscape
and fostering,
better relations with their patients
and sort of removing that middleman that's in
the room, particularly the hospitals.
And then as we wrap our conversation up,
many
many organizations are exploring new technologies,
partnerships, and care models to improve efficiency and
outcomes. So are there any innovations or initiatives
that you found particularly promising in this area?
One of the biggest initiatives,
that we see across,
all fields and particularly our field is artificial
intelligence.
Artificial intelligence,
is playing a massive role in the care
that we provide,
how we provide that care,
how the patients find us to,
to seek the care that they need.
And,
more recently,
doctor spearheaded
a fantastic study
that was published by multiple DXTX
pain and spine physicians across the country,
with him being the leader.
And it spoke specifically to this topic and
how we implement spinal cord stimulation therapies these
days and how AI
is playing an impactful role, in patient care.
Absolutely. Is there anything else you'd like to
share that we didn't touch on today?
Yes. I'd like to share some, new exciting
developments that are happening across our DXTX
network.
We're integrating
AI
and digitizing
our informed consent process.
We're digitizing our educational process for our patient
care models.
We're utilizing
programs such as anchor health care
and Informed Consent
where patients are able to
learn about their procedures,
prior to arriving to the surgery center.
They're able to then view those procedures on
multiple occasions on their own at home,
as the
informed consent process is an ongoing
educational process for our patients.
This allows the patients to,
have all their questions answered.
They allows them to view these videos
with their families
and their friends and then, come prepared with
more questions if,
they have any other questions they wanna ask
when they come for their procedures.
Additionally,
what we've noticed utilizing these platforms in our
practice, particularly,
is that the patients have a higher satisfaction
rate. Our nurses are more educated, and our
staff feels that we're doing a great job,
with our patients as well.
Wonderful. Well, thanks so much for joining me
today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast to share
your insights. Again, we are recording at the
twenty second annual Spine Orthopedic and Pain Management
Conference.
Thank you.