Orthopedic surgery has always been a family affair for Daniel Buchalter, MD. He grew up watching his father care for the community, and now Dr. Buchalter is following in his footsteps.
Dr. Daniel Buchalter joined Carmel, N.Y.-based Somers Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine Group, which was founded by his father Joel Buchalter, MD.
Dr. Daniel Buchalter spoke with Becker's about the move, and why he chose a private practice setting after his fellowship at New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery.
Question: Your father co-founded Somers. Was following in his footsteps always on your mind growing up? Or did you get into orthopedics on your own?
Dr. Daniel Buchalter: It was absolutely always something that I wanted to do. I vividly remember being a little kid and getting to go to the office and the operating room with him. Seeing the way he took care of his patients — my school teachers, my gym teachers, my coaches, my neighbors, and my friends —- and how much they appreciated how hard he worked to make them better was both eye-opening and inspiring. So getting the opportunity to not only work with my father, but also to take care of patients in the community the same way that he has for as long as I can remember, was something I have been working towards my entire life. My father has been my buddy, my pal, my best friend, my role model, and my inspiration for my entire life, thus it was a pretty natural and easy career choice for me.
Q: What are some values of your dad's that you're going to bring into your own work?
DB: He cares more than anything and makes abundantly clear to his patients and colleagues that above all else, the patient comes first. He's well known for spending a lot of time with each patient to really get to know them, hear their story, see where they come from, and to really examine them rather than just treat X-rays or MRIs. In that vein, he's well known to run overtime in his office, staying late into the night to make sure that every patient is treated as best as possible.
I have very quickly noticed in my early practice that I do the exact same thing. Maybe subconsciously, over the course of my training, I developed the same approach to patient care. And while it often leads me to staying late at work, it also leads me to taking the best possible care of my patients, which to me is my goal as a physician.
Q: You did your fellowship at Hospital for Special Surgery. What are some big lessons from that training specifically that you're going to translate into at Somers?
DB: That was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. A lot of the things that I learned there, I am bringing to Somers. Similar to the way my father and I approach patient care, at HSS, and also during my training at NYU, I saw an intense attention to detail that emphasized and led to quality and perfection at all costs.
During my fellowship at HSS, I saw every person in the hospital working to do the best possible job that they could do for every patient. For example, in the operating room, every single person, whether a doctor or not, knew what to do at every step in every operation. The scrub tech, the circulating nurse, the anesthesiologist, they all knew what to do and when in order to get the best outcomes for their patients.
What is most inspiring is that in my early days with Somers, I have already seen that exact attention to detail and patient-first mentality. And it is exactly that mentality — a culture of quality, safety, and excellence in patient care — that I am excited to continue with Somers.
Q: While your dad just played a huge role in you deciding this career move, how else did you weigh the decision to go into private practice, opposed to a hospital or health system?
DB: There were two components. One is, I always wanted the chance and privilege to work with my father. If I ever didn't work with him because I was offered some other great job, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for not taking the chance to work with not only the person who inspired me to become an orthopedic surgeon, but my dad. Somers has created such a great name in the community that I grew up in, that I see it as an honor to get to work with not only my father, but the founding and longstanding orthopedists at Somers who were the giants of my childhood.
For the second reason, one of the things I learned training in the city at such high-powered academic institutions is how to bridge the gap between clinical science and research. My clinical training and research productivity and everything that I learned in those respects allow me to bring a fresh research mindset to our private practice. These research interests and my understanding of how to design and interpret research studies provide a new perspective on how to continue to improve the care of our patients at Somers. I simply see a huge opportunity at Somers to elevate the practice by enabling cutting-edge research at our unique intersection of a private practice, ambulatory surgery center, and multiple hospital systems-setting.