Spine surgeons Max Kahn, MD, and Andrew Chung, MD, both helped bring endoscopic spine surgery to their health systems.
Here is how they made their cases:
Dr. Max Kahn. OSF Illinois Neurological Institute (Bloomington, Ill.): Basically the idea is that right now they're providing great spine care. But what is it that we can do to make it even better? The idea that smaller incisions, less blood loss, less pain, shorter hospital stay and potential for same day surgeries that previously required several days — all these things were essentially the impetus behind trying to get this moving forward. An additional part of it was this is a technology that nobody around us is really using yet, and this is a means to stand out, while elevating the level of care that we're providing.
Dr. Andrew Chung. Banner Del Webb Medical Center (Sun City West, Ariz.): At the end of the day, they have to think about the financials. They've got to think about how this is going to help grow their finances over time and if it makes sense. If you're bringing something in that is only just going to suck money away from the hospital, at the end of the day, they have to keep the lights on and they're held accountable for making profits.
Being able to kind of help them understand, "Well, hey, there might be this upfront cost, but in the long run or in terms of additional business that we'll be able to bring to the hospital, it will be fruitful." We're not taught how to speak business or sit in a room with administrators and convince them financially that something makes sense. We only see the clinical side of things. But the reality is many administrators don't have a surgical background and they don't know these things. You have to be able to speak their language and communicate in their terms why these things are potentially beneficial.