Solo practitioners in medicine are a rare breed.
That’s because to stay in business they have to be innovative and take big risks with their own capital, uncertain of how government and insurers will reimburse them in the future.
“Your hands are kind of forced,” says Robert Zehr, a Naples surgeon whose office walls are papered with printed bar charts showing revenues and caseloads. He has operated a solo practice in Naples called Zehr Center for Orthopaedics since 2007.
Zehr, who moved to Naples in 1998 to spearhead the Cleveland Clinic’s move here, recently opened Seaside Surgery Center with joint-replacement surgeon Kurtis Biggs to perform same-day total hip and knee replacements on an outpatient basis, one of the few centers in the country to offer this surgery. Patients at Seaside can be on the operating table at 7 a.m. and be home by noon.
Business Observer, Florida’s newspaper for the C-Suite, recently published an article detailing the risks and rewards of opening Seaside, for partners and patients alike. Read the full article here.
Becker’s ASC Review, an online digest of news for Ambulatory Surgery Centers, followed up with an online summary of the article.